


The Invasion

by Pixel_Runner



Series: Shadow Aliens [1]
Category: Aliens in America, Original Work, Sci-Fi - Fandom
Genre: Abandoned Work - Unfinished and Discontinued, Alien Cultural Differences, Assisted Suicide, Cannibalism, Documentary style, Dystopia, Genocide, I hope, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Other, POV First Person, Smut, Society Collapse, Teratophilia, Triggers, Venom-like aliens, small town
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-01
Updated: 2018-06-24
Packaged: 2019-04-30 18:24:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 27,854
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14502855
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixel_Runner/pseuds/Pixel_Runner
Summary: I had hoped that living in a small, remote town had meant the aliens wouldn't come for us.It turns out, it just took them longer to get here.





	1. Chapter 1

That spring, they landed in the big cities first.  The shape shifting aliens. They were black like holes in the universe.  Blackest black. They absorbed all light. Except for the six faintly glowing red eyes and the teeth like something out of a Venom movie.  They had as many arms as they needed for whatever they were doing. They could stretch tall like a tree or turn into a puddle of black tar and ooze under the door.  They rounded up people and killed hundreds of us.

 

Food riots started immediately.

 

Our town held a meeting.  All three hundred of us. We planted our victory gardens and organized to take care of each other.  I took over my neighbour’s garden and keep them feed. The World War Two Vet and his war bride. Some of the local farmers organized for everyone to have a few chickens in our yards.  We barricaded the bridge into town and kept to ourselves.

 

Fall came and we held a canning bee.  With care, we would make it through the winter.  The power still ran, telephones and internet still worked.  Most of the TV channels went down, but some news was still getting out and radio broadcasts remained live for the most part.  We saw pictures of them. The things. They won’t attack first, we were told. Nonetheless, there was footage of them killing children who threw rocks, and countries with more access to guns had vastly higher casualties.

 

We were in the middle of nowhere and hoped to be overlooked.  

 

It was November which is the dark time of the year.  I was bringing breakfast next door to John and Mary. My dog Zoey and I..  She started barking, then lunged at something. I looked up to see six glowing eyes watching us.

 

They don’t attack first.  I didn’t even have time to think.  I tackled Zoey first and realized after that I was worried it might consider a dog a weapon.  Zoey whined and snarled and tried to escape. I held her against the ground. “Leave it!” I snapped.  She relaxed under me. 

 

I looked up and the eyes were right near my face.   I squeaked and pressed my face to the dry grass of my lawn.  Fingers that were both hot and cold stroked my hair, then down my back and over my ass where my nightgown had ridden up.  As it’s fingers slipped between my legs, I started to whimper. The hand withdrew. I looked up and in the faint light I could see it pointing to my house.

 

“Leave it!” it said in my voice.  

 

I jumped up and dragged Zoey back into my house and locked the door.

 

It was lunch time before I relaxed enough to try again.  I made sandwiches with the bread from yesterday. The flour was wheat I had ground in my coffee mill.  Fuck, I missed coffee. I checked to make sure the coast was clear before I opened the door. There was no one around.  The smashed breakfast plate had been carefully placed on my step. I stared at it before locking Zoey in the house and going next door.

 

John and Mary were dead.  It looked like John had used his service revolver on Mary first and himself second.  I just stood there listening to someone screaming.

 

I didn’t realize it was me until something touched my back.  “Leave it,” it said in my voice as hands gripped my shoulders and steered me back to my own house.  Hands on my shoulders, hands stroking my hair, hands opening the door to my house and pushing me inside.  I sat on the floor and wept as Zoey licked my face.

 

I jumped when there was a knock on the door.  All I could see through the window was blackness. I stared at the window, my heart racing so fast I couldn’t even swallow.

 

It rang the doorbell.

 

I covered my mouth and nose with my hands and tried to stop hyperventilating.   Zoey started to bark. I send her out to the back yard and opened my front door.  It was standing there holding my tupperware of sandwiches.

 

It held them out to me.

 

I just stared at it.  “I take care of them!” I blurted out.

 

It blinked some of its eyes. “Leave it!” it said in my voice. “I take care of them!”

 

I started to shake.  The world went very bright, then very dark.

 

\----

 

I woke up in bed with Zoey licking my face and a tupperware of sandwiches next to me.  I got up and went to get some water. Through my kitchen window I could see that John and Mary’s house was gone.  The house, the garage, the driveway, even the little 1970’s tin shed had vanished leaving bare earth where they should be.  I stepped out to look at the rest of the block and tripped over a basket of groceries and large water jug. Across the street, Doris was staring at me.  As soon as I made eye contact she bolted back inside.

 

I brought in the food and went to look in the mirror.  Still me.

 

Zoey and I spent the evening sitting in front of the little wood stove that was supposed to be for emergency power outages.  We fell asleep swaddled in blankets. Knowing one of those things had been there, it felt like my bedroom had been contaminated.

 

I was even kind of afraid of the food that had been left.

 

Zoey had to pee around eleven.  It was dark out. I clipped on the leash and took her out to the back yard.  We wandered around as she sniffed things. Then she started doing something strange.  It took me a moment to realize she was licking black fingers that were nearly invisible in the gloom.  I hissed in surprise and stepped back, pulling her towards the house.

 

I heard my voice say, “I take care of Leave it.”

 

I felt sick.  Zoey came over and leaned against me.  I scratched her ears. “Are you going to make me disappear too?” I asked.

 

It chiddered and chippered, then used my voice to say, “Are you going to make me disappear too?”

 

I shook my head.  Was it just recording my voice and playing it back or-

 

“I take care of you.” It’s voice broke where it patched the ‘I take care of’ from this morning to the ‘you’ from ‘are you going’ just now.

 

I shuddered.  “Can’t you just use your own voice?”

 

More clicks and hums and trills, then it shook its head, no, and walked away to disappear into the night.

 

\----

 

It was four thirteen am and I had just jerked awake with a scream.  Again. It was tonight’s pattern. An hour or so of sleep. A nightmare about blackness.  Startling awake. Waiting an hour or two to fall back asleep. Repeat.

 

That was enough of that.  I got up, turned on all the lights and made some mint tea.

 

When someone knocked on the door, I jumped spilling hot water on my hand.  I swore softly and went to run cold water over it. The only thing I could see through the glass in the door was blackness.

 

And six glowing red eyes.

 

I wasn’t in a rush to open the door. 

 

It rang the bell.  A lot. Shit. What kind of alien rings the doorbell?

 

“Go away!” I shouted.  Zoey started to bark. The doorbell stopped ringing.  I could see the porch light through the door window again.  I relaxed a little.

 

Until I saw the six glowing eyes through the front picture window.  I flinched and was shaking as I went to pull the blinds closed.

 

I didn’t have curtains in my tiny dining room.  There was no point. The window faced, had faced, the blank wall on the side of John’s house.

 

Now all it showed was six glowing eyes.  I took my tea and went into the bedroom and closed the door and the blinds.

 

I heard the back yard gate open and close, then it knocked on my back door.

 

I ignored it.

 

It started tapping on my bedroom window.

 

I whimpered and hid under the bed.  After a while the tapping stopped.

 

The back door opened.

 

I covered my mouth and tried not to scream.  Zoey started to whine.

 

The bedroom door opened.  I could hear footsteps, but couldn’t see anything in the gloom.

 

The bed lifted slightly off the floor and six glowing red eyes peeked under the bed at me.

 

I screamed a scream of pure primal terror.

 

It dropped the bed and ran away.

 

I lay there in shock as it slammed the bedroom door behind it and the back door shortly after.  I heard the gate open, but not close. Huh. I would have to remember to close that in the morning.

 

I think I actually got a little more sleep that night.  I woke up hungry and disoriented under bed around 8am. I got up and swigged down my now cold mint tea and went to open the front blinds.  There was a black hand print that changed into claw marks waiting for me on the glass. 

 

When I looked outside, I couldn’t see the alien, so I grabbed a rag and some window cleaner and went out to try to scrub the print off my window.  It was sticky like tar and would not budge.

 

The alien was leaning against the side of my house watching me.  In person, in the daylight, it wasn’t blackest black, but it still had and oily appearance, with the occasional rainbow shimmer as the light through the trees shifted on its… skin?  

 

Surface.

 

“Why are you watching me?” I asked softly.

 

The words were smoother this time.  It matched my nervous tone, “I take care of you, Leave it.”  The thing said ‘Leave it’ like it thought that was my name. I wasn’t going to get into that.  I wondered if I could ask it not to take care of me without offending it or making it angry.

 

I looked away and went back to staring at the hand print on the glass.  That was when I noticed that Doris’s house wasn’t reflected in my window.  I spun around and saw that it was gone, the same way John and Mary’s house was gone.  I stared at the empty lot across the street and felt hot and cold fingers in my hair.

 

I turned back, “You are killing my neighbours!”

 

It cocked its head to the side and seemed to consider this.  Its hand reached for my face. I backed away and tripped on the grass landing solidly on my ass.  It was next to me in an instant, hand out.

 

“Don’t touch me!”

It froze, eyes blinking.

 

I started to cry.  Zoey was barking angrily at the window.  It was just sitting there, watching me. “I don’t want you touching me.” I whispered.

 

It didn’t so much lower its hand as absorb it into its center of mass.  Still it sat there, watching.

 

“I don’t want you coming into my house, either.”

 

It nodded and went to stand politely on the sidewalk.  Except that it was still staring at me. At my house. I scrubbed my face, aware that this was likely as good as I was going to get and went inside to feed Zoey some breakfast.

 

I was washing the dishes still trying to process that John and Mary were gone.  They weren’t blood relatives, but I had eaten every meal with them for almost a year now.

 

Doris was my kindergarten teacher.

 

We had lost so many people since they had arrived, even without actual aliens in our town.  Without access to insulin, the diabetics went first. Terry had committed suicide when his antidepressants ran out.  Sarah had found a farmer with a small stockpile of veterinary supplies and had attended her own funeral before preventing her Parkinson’s from getting worse.

 

We had established a pattern of burying them in their front yards, then turning off the services to their house, distributing any supplies they had that were needed, then locking the doors and leaving the keys in the town library.

 

The town had a few houses like that.  Tiny little museums remembering the people who had lived there. Or maybe not.  I wondered if they had been erased too. The news hadn’t said anything about that. It had talked about the industrial prisons just disappearing, taking the inmates and the guards when they went.

 

Once the first wave of death was over, we had hoped we could just hunker down and survive.  We thought we were too small to notice. It had been hard work putting up enough food for the winter, but we had farms around here and the electricity was sketchy enough at the best of times, so everyone had a back up way to heat their houses.  It wasn’t like there were any McMansions in town. Hell, the biggest place was the official Mayor’s residence, built more than a hundred years ago. It clocked in at a whopping 1400 sq feet.

 

There were still a number of homes that has wells in their backyard.  I could always get water from John’s - 

 

A wave of panic hit me and I ran out and looked over the fence.

 

The pump was gone.  John and Mary’s whole lot had been leveled.  I jumped the fence and went searching in the dirt to see if I could find it, but there was no sign of where the well had been.

 

“Leave it?”

 

The …  _ thing _ managed to make it sound like a question.  It was still using my voice. I grabbed a rock and turned on it.  Then remembered the footage of them tearing that kid to pieces and let it fall from my hand.

 

“There was water here.  My emergency water.” I explained, angrily.  “And you took it from me! You took my people and I didn’t get to give them a proper burial!  You came into my house like you owned it! Like you own me! Why are you even here?” I was crying by the end and I didn’t even care.

 

It reached out towards my face.  I flinched, but then left without touching me.  

 

I wrapped my muddy hands around my knees and started to rock.

 

The thing was back a moment later, carrying Zoey.  It knelt a few feet away and pushed her towards me.

 

I hugged my dog and just sobbed.

  
  


 


	2. Chapter 2

Eventually, I calmed down and looked around.  It was still watching me. “How many other houses did you take?” I wondered.

 

The creature just watched me, unblinking.

 

“Am I allowed to go check?”

 

Now it blinked.  It oozed away from me that turned into a puddle and hid in the shadow of the fence.  Six red eyes peering up at me for the ground. I shivered. The whole thing was so creepy.

 

Zoey never walked on a leash.  She heeled perfectly without one.  The look she gave me as I clipped it one before we left the house was hurt.  “Easy there, girl. I don’t know how many of those things are out there. It’s safer this way.”

 

I live at the end of the street and my town isn’t exactly high traffic at the best of times.  But today it was especially deserted. People I knew peeked at me through their windows, but didn’t come out to say hi.  All the empty houses were now nothing but dirt. I wondered if they had taken the bodies when they took the houses and decided I didn’t want to know.  As I walked I thought I could feel things watching me, but looking around I couldn’t see any.

 

Beth’s house had a black handprint on the window too.   Hers wasn’t on the outside of the window, it was on the inside.  I rang the bell and let myself in when there was no answer. She was sitting on the floor in the kitchen, wrapped in a blanket, nearly catatonic. 

 

“Beth?  Beth what’s wrong?”  She ignored me but woke up a little when Zoey nudged her hands and licked her face.

 

“Something is in my house,” she whispered.  “I woke in the night and my ceiling was black, then eyes opened on it and it looked at me.  And it licked it’s lips and drooled on me.” She shuddered.

 

“When was that?”

 

She stared through me.  “The night before last night.”  

 

“OK.  Let’s get you some clothes, you can come stay with me.”

 

Beth whimpered and shook her head.

 

Black oozed out of the corners and formed into a humanoid shape with six glowing eyes.  It spoke with my voice, “Beth? Can - stay with me.” The same jerking patched together speech, but this one had added menace and a hint of snarl.

 

Beth started to cry.  She crumpled back in on herself.

 

“You are hurting her!” I said.

 

The door knob rattled and another thing came it.  It chittered at the one standing over us. That one turned its head a full 180 degrees and snarled.  There was some back and forth of clicks and trills. The one who had been harassing Beth seemed to be getting increasingly agitated.  It snarled and snapped and seemed to puff up even bigger than it was. The other didn’t back down. It kept chattering. Finally Beth’s stalker screamed, the one in the doorway shrieked and more of the creatures poured into Beth’s house.   They surrounded the one that was watching Beth and attacked.

 

Turquoise colour blood splashed as they ripped it to pieces.  They fell to the floor lapping up every drop with long, prehensile tongues until all that was left was a little pile of very sharp, very clean teeth.  It was like watching a car accident. I couldn’t look away.

 

Beth did.  She had her face buried in my chest and was sobbing.

 

Most of the others left, but one was still watching us from Beth’s doorway.  It cocked its head to the side and softly said, “Leave it?”

 

I looked over at it.  “You are scary! That one scared her!”

 

It nodded slowly.

 

“I want her to come stay with me until she is feeling better, but she can’t do that if you are going to take her house.”

 

It was very still, just watching us.  Beth still hadn’t looked up. It ran its long tongue over its teeth, then said, “Leave her house.”

 

“You bet your ass we are going to leave her house!  Will it be be here when she gets back?”

 

It snarled and we both jumped.  It sort of oozed into a crouch and said, “I take care of - her house.  I - Leave it! - here, Leave it. Leave it safe.”

 

I nodded slowly, then I pulled Beth into standing and walked her back to my house.  I somehow managed to get her down the stairs to my spare bedroom. Her clothes where filthy.  I stripped her and pushed her into the shower. After a couple of minutes under the warm water, she perked up enough to wash her own hair.  Once she was done, I gave her one of my oversized night shirt and tucked her into the basement bedroom. 

 

Even though there was light coming in the window, I left my salt lamp on.  

 

“Zoey!  Stay!” 

 

Zoey crawled into bed with Beth and flopped against her with a huge sigh.

 

Once Beth was passed out, I headed out to go get her some clothes.  One of the shadow creatures was standing on the sidewalk in front of my house.  I hesitated. I had no way of knowing if it was the one stalking me or a new one.  They all looked the same to me. Right up until it did the head tilt and said, “Leave it? Zoey safe?”

 

I nodded slowly.  “Zoey is taking care of Beth.”

 

“Zoey is taking care of Beth.  I taking care of you.”

 

I stared at it.  “Did you attack the one who was scaring Beth?”

 

“Hurting Beth,” it suggested.

 

“Yeah.  Scaring her so bad she couldn’t sleep or eat or take care of herself.  Hurting her.”

 

“I… hurting scaring Leave it?”

 

I watched it.  “Some times. But you let me leave and you didn’t come into my house when I told you not to.”

 

It blinked.

 

I sighed, “Look, I’m just going to go get Beth some of her things.  Is anyone going to go in there are hurt Beth and Zoey?”

 

It considered this.  “Beth and Zoey safe.”

 

“OK.  Next question: Am I going to be safe going to Beth’s house?”

 

“I take care of Leave it.”

 

I had to ask, “Why?”

 

It cocked its head at me but didn’t answer.  It didn’t say anything as it followed me back to Bath’s.  It adjusted its shape to a cross between a dog and a gorilla and loped next to me in heel position just as Zoey did.

 

It also waited on Beth’s step and did not try to come into her house.

 

First things first.  I found a dustpan and broom and swept up the teeth.  Ugh. A few minutes of hunting turned up an empty jar I could carefully pour them into.  The thing was waiting on the step. I handed it the jar.

 

It nodded and took it carefully from me.

 

“Do you have a name?” I asked.  

 

It made a chittering sound.

 

“Is that your name?”

 

It nodded.

 

“I can’t make that sound.”  It just looked at me. I sighed, “Can I give you a name that I can say?”

 

It nodded and did something with its mouth that was a parody of a smile.

 

I took a step back.

 

It covered its teeth.

 

My knee jerk reaction was to call it George as a reference to the Bugs Bunny cartoon with the Abominable Snowman.  Except the line was ‘hug it and pet it and squeeze it and call it George’. I was going to have to think about that.  I went back inside and packed up some clothes and Beth’s hairbrush, toothbrush and a few other random items.

 

A year ago, Beth had been really into make up.  She was always perfectly put together. It had been months since anyone could get new lipstick, but seeing as how she had a drawer full, I grabbed one that I remembered her wearing and brought that too.  Sometimes a girl needs her war paint.

 

Once I had a bag packed I made sure everything was turned off, including the water and headed out.

 

It was still waiting on the step, holding the jar of teeth.

 

“I don’t want that,” I said.  “Beth won’t want it here when she come back either.”

 

It nodded and stuffed the jar inside itself.  I shivered at that. It reached for my arm, but didn’t touch me.  It pulled back its arm and pantomimed a shiver.

 

I sighed, “It’s called a shiver.  It means the person is uncomfortable.  Either cold or scared or nervous or disgusted.”

 

“Leave it cold or scared or nervous or disgusted?”

 

“In this case, George, all of the above.”

 

When I got home, I stepped over the broken plate from the waffles I had made the morning I first saw George.  It was still on my step. All of the pieces had been carefully picked up and put back together like the most ridiculous jigsaw puzzle in history.  The waffles were gone. Actually, when I thought about it, I hadn’t seen the waffles since I dropped the plate to tackle Zoey.

 

I looked over to the flattened grass where I had fallen.  No sign of them. Not that I wanted them back, but still, “Damn crows ate my waffles.”

 

“I ate waffles,” George said, licking his face with his long tongue.

 

I raised an eyebrow, “Well, I hope you enjoyed them, George.  Both flour and syrup are in short supply these days.”

 

George copied the gesture.  With six eyes, widening just one wasn’t the effect he was after.  I shivered again and turned to go inside. George made one of Zoey’s little whimpering noises.  I froze. “Leave it disgusted of George?”

 

I closed my eyes but didn’t turn around.  Yes. But that wasn’t the tactful answer and I had watch it eat one of its own that morning.  “I am glad you didn’t come into my house and watch me sleep.” And with that, I stepped inside and closed the door firmly behind me.

 

Zoey and Beth were fine.  I left the door a jar and went upstairs.  I thought about making lunch, but I hadn’t slept well last night either.  Maybe nap time all around wasn’t such a bad idea.

  
\----

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what do you think?


	3. Chapter 3

I woke to the smell of frying onions.  Beth was cooking, she didn’t even look up when I came into the kitchen. Instead she just announced, “I miss chips.”

 

“Oh my god!  Popcorn!”

 

Now she looked up at me.  “Yeah! With M&Ms and that fake butter crap they serve at the movies.”

 

I nodded, “Yeah.  I’d take popcorn anyway I could get it at this point.  But my favourite was Chicago style.”

 

“Ooh!  Caramel and cheddar!  Yum!’ She sighed and went back to stirring.  “Fried potatoes and onions just aren’t the same as chips.”

 

“No.  Any there isn’t enough cooking oil to deep fry anything these days,” I added.

 

“Yeah,” she agreed sadly.  She poked at the pan with the wooden spoon some more.  Then she looked up, “The one that follows you, how did you get it to talk?  Hell, how did you get either of them to talk? The one in my house didn’t say a word until you were trying to get me away from it.”

 

I frowned and thought about that.  “I don’t know. Mine talked to me from the first time I saw it.  It doesn’t have a great vocabulary. It keeps calling me Leave it, like it thinks that’s my name.”

 

Beth frowned, “It thinks your name is  _ Leave it _ ?”

 

I shrugged.  “That was the first thing it heard me say.  I was trying to get Zoey to stop barking at it.”

 

“Huh.”  Beth stirred the pan some more.  “Weird.”

 

I got out the plates and set the table.  When I bought the house, I also bought most of the furniture from the estate of woman who had lived here before me.  She had updated the place from two tiny bedrooms on the main floor with a bunch of broken up walls further shrinking the place, to a fairly open concept she could get her walker through.  She had also changed all the door knobs to lever style, so if I wasn’t careful, Zoey could open most of the doors.

 

Honestly, that dog is too damn smart for her own good some time.

 

Beth was stirring par boiled potato slices into the onions.  She nodded to the hand print on the front window. “Yours is on the outside.”

 

“Yeah.  It was there when I woke up this morning.  I tried to clean it, but it is like tar.”

 

Beth gave me an odd look, “Do you know what it is?”

 

“Not a clue.”

 

Beth stirred the hash some more.  “At my house it made me watch it jack off and then it wiped its hand on the glass to make that mark.”

 

“Ugh!  That’s-” I trailed of at a loss for words.

 

“Even more disgusting when you have to see it in person.”

 

I thought about that some more.  “I still have a couple of emergency bottles of wine.  I think this counts as an emergency.”

 

Beth considered that as she moved the pan off the stove.  “How many other houses have hand prints?”

 

I swallowed.  “I don’t know.  I only made it as far as your house.  I didn’t see any others, but I only checked the one block.”  We stared at each other in mounting anxiety. “Do you feel up to coming with me to check?”

 

“Will they let us?”

 

“I don’t know.”

 

We ate in silence.  I tried not to panic about needing to be the one to ask.  Once the potatoes were eaten and I had managed to stall long enough to wash the dishes, Beth said, “If you don’t want to, we could just stay in the house.”

 

I considered this.  “I want to know, but I don’t, know what I mean?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Aw hell.” I said and went out to the step before I could wimp out.  I couldn’t see George, but the plate was still on the step. I picked it up.  There were faint blue lines where the pieces had been joined together, but I couldn’t tell how.  I ran a careful finger over it. The surface was as smooth as if it hadn’t broken. When I turned it over, so was the back.

 

“Leave it?”

 

When I looked up, George was standing at the property line.  I looked at it (him?) then over at the stain on my window. “What does that mean?”

 

“Mine.”  O...kay…. That wasn’t my voice.  It was a deep rumbling base that sounded like it had been run through some sort of special effect machine.  I shivered and wanted to run. But George wasn’t done speaking. “Leave it is mine. I take care of you.”

 

“And Beth belonged to that other one?”

 

George chittered and trilled and made a noise of frustration.  “Not hurt Leave it. ( _ chitter _ ) Other one hurt Beth.”

 

“You claimed me?” I asked.  George nodded. “The other one claimed Beth.”  This time his nod was more hesitant. “How many other people in town have been claimed?”

 

George held up a hand and as I watched, he grew seven fingers.

 

I started to tremble and closed my eyes as I asked the next question.  “Are they being hurt too?”

 

“NO!” it was a roar that rattled the windows.

 

I jumped and stumbled backwards. George stepped toward the house then froze.  “Leave it is scared.”

 

I nodded and felt tears well up in my eyes.  I scrubbed my face and took a deep breath. My voice cracked a little as I said, ‘Yeah.  I don’t know what is going on and I don’t feel safe.”

 

“I take care of you.”

 

“I don’t know what that means!” it came out as a shout and I flinched.  

 

Beth cracked the door open a little and whispered, “Are you OK?”  

 

I nodded and turned to go inside.

 

“I take care of Leave it.  I take you safe.”

 

“Where are you taking her?” Beth demanded.

 

George snarled for a moment.  “Safe! I take her safe!”

 

I put my hand on Beth’s arm.  “Are we leaving town, George? Or are you keeping me safe?”

 

George made sounds at us then made the frustrated noise again.

 

Beth laughed.  I looked at her.  “That is the sound you make when you are frustrated!”

 

“I do not!”

 

Beth grinned and nodded at me.  “Tell her, George. That is her frustrated sound, right?”  George cocked his head, watching us. Beth pointed at him, “And that is what Zoey does when she is trying to problem solve.”

 

I looked at him and realized she was right.  “Are you learning to communicate by watching me?”

 

Beth shook her head, “If that’s true he isn’t going to understand the word communicate.  There isn’t enough context in that sentence.”

 

George was watching us.  “Understand word,” he tapped his head “Learning to communicate to Leave it by watching Leave it, and Zoey and Beth.”

 

We all just stared at each other for a moment.  Then Beth said, “Can we go check on the others, George?”

 

George cocked his head again.  “Others not hurt Beth. Not hurt Leave it.”

 

“She means the other people - others like us.” I explained.

 

George considered this. “Others not hurt people.”  He thought some more, “People not hurt others, others not hurt people.  Leave it and Zoey and Beth go check.”

 

Beth went to get a sweater and mumbled, “Nice to know I rank lower than the dog.”

 

I shrugged.  “He met Zoey first.  I don’t think he is trying to be mean about that.”

 

Our town used to be bigger.  There were a lot of empty houses, now empty lots.  Part of me wanted to knock on every door to make sure everyone was still alive, but I was worried there were seven other people trapped in their houses by shadow monsters.

 

The next house we found with a mark was Daniel’s.  He was outside trying to scrub it off. He waved when he saw us.  “What is with everyone today? They are all hiding inside. It isn’t that cold out.”  Beth and I exchanged a look. “What?” he asked.

 

I licked my lips and cleared my throat, “Do you know where that mark came from?”

 

“Bored kids?” he suggested.  “It seems like something the Campbell boys would do.”

 

“It’s alien sp-” I elbowed Beth before she could finish that sentence.

 

“The - um - invaders are here.  One of them trapped Beth in her house of the last couple of days and one has been following me.”

 

Daniel stared at us.  “Is this a joke?”

 

I pulled him down to the street and pointed up the road.  “Did the Campbell boys steal the vacant houses too?”

 

“Holy shite!”  He looked up and down the street.  “My house is the only one with a handprint.  Why?”

 

“My house has one too.  So does Beths. The one who has been watching me says it means he is taking care of me.  The one that had Beth trapped was terrorizing her for two days. George is creepy as anything, but hasn’t actually seemed too dangerous yet.”

 

“George?”

 

I blushed, “I had to call him something.”

 

Daniel was grinning at me, “Are you going to hug him and kiss him and - Ow!”

 

I punched him in the arm.  The shadow under Daniel’s hedge started to growl and oozed out and into a humanoid shape.  Daniel immediately stepped in front of us and said, “Get in the house! I’ll try to hold it off!”

 

Beth ran for it.  

 

“Daniel?” I said slowly, “Did I hurt you just now?”

 

“What? No! Wussy little -”

 

“Could you tell your friend that, please.”  I suggested. Someone who might be George had turned up and was now also growling.

 

Daniel swallowed.  “She didn’t hurt me.  We are ok.” The two things both relaxed and settled down a little.  “Wait! What do you mean ‘my friend’?”

 

I nodded to the one that had been hiding in the hedge.  “That’s your mark, yeah?”

 

It was George that replied, “His mark, yeah.”

 

I thought the other one looked at George like he had grown another head.  Then I found myself wondering if they could do that.

 

Daniel was staring.  “That’s your voice!”

 

I sighed, “It seems like they speak by copying what they hear.”

 

Daniel stared at me.  “What do you mean my friend and why did it wipe its greasy hand on my window?”

 

“I - um… How do I say this?  I think it means he likes you.”

 

Daniel frowned.  “What do you mean it likes me?”

 

“Honestly, I have no fucking idea what I mean!  I am not suddenly an expert on aliens here! George keeps saying he is going to take care of me and the one who had Beth didn’t want her out of his sight and now you have a hand print and one hiding in the bushes!  That’s it! Now you are all caught up and know as much as I do!”

 

“Are you OK?” Daniel asked.

 

“No!  No, I am not OK!  I don’t know what is going on!  John and Mary are dead! I have no idea what happened to Doris! And I have some sort of shadow monster stalking me!”  George flinched at that. “Sorry,” I said reflexively.

 

“Are you apologizing to it?” Daniel asked incredulously.

 

“Yeah.  He is scary but he hasn’t tried to scary me or hurt me.  Look. There is you and me and Beth and six other people who have those handprints on their houses and I have no idea who they are, but I want to make sure they are OK and not trapped like Beth was.”

 

Daniel nodded.  “OK, so we go check.”

 

Of the nine of us, eight were female, but Daniel was not.  Eight were between the ages of 20 and 30, but Helen was not.  Seven didn’t even know they were being watched, but Beth and I did.  There didn’t seem to be a pattern that we could see. 

 

George was the only one of them who tried talking to one of us.  Everyone, human and alien, seemed to be surprised by that.

 

Meagan glared at the one who had been watching her.  “Why wouldn’t you come talk to me? Hiding under my bed like something out of a movie!  You should be ashamed!”

 

It just blinked at her.

 

Actually, they were all watching our discussion with blank faces.  None of them, not even George contributed to help us understand what was going on.  We tried to negotiate some rules, like they wouldn’t come into our houses uninvited, but they gave no acknowledgement to the request.  After hearing Beth’s story, we asked that they not watch us sleep or touch us.

 

There was some discussion amongst them at that, but nothing that we could understand.

 

Finally, Zoey nudged me and whined and I realized it was almost ten o’clock and no one had eaten diner.  None of the humans felt up to eating, especially after Megan asked, “Do we know what  _ they _ eat?  Besides each other, I mean.”

 

There was a collective shudder at that.

 

“Waffles.” I offered.  They all looked at me. I shrugged.

 

No one wanted to walk home alone, so we all went together with Beth and me being the last ones home.  On the way past her house, we noticed the handprint was gone from her front window. “I honestly don’t know if that makes me feel better or worse,” she whispered.  When we got to my place, she went straight down stairs and fell on the bed.

 

I fed Zoey and went to close the curtains.  George knocked on the window making me jump. I finished closing the blinds and went to the door.  I opened it a little and peeked out.

 

“Invite.”

 

“Why?”

 

“I take care of you, Leave it.  Invite.”

 

“Are you going to stick to me ceiling and watch me sleep?”

 

“Not stick to ceiling.”

 

“What about watching me sleep?”

 

“George not stick to Leave it ceiling.”

 

“Uh huh.  And the sleeping?”

 

“I take care of you.”

 

“I’m not going to be able to sleep with you watching me.  Not letting me sleep is hurting.”

 

He stared hard at me.  I wondered if I was just anthropomorphising that it looked like he was thinking about that.  “Invite, please.”

 

“If I don’t invite you, that doesn’t actually keep you out, does it?”

 

George just looked at me. “Leave it scared George.  George come in, no invite, Leave it scared SCARED,” he explained.

 

“If I invite you in, Beth will be really scared.” I reasoned.

 

George tilted his head. “Zoey not scared.”

 

I looked down at my dog, who traitorously wagged her tail.  Well, fuck. He had a point. “If I invite you in, will you leave if I get scared?”

 

George nodded cautiously.

 

“What about Beth?”

 

Again, the pause.  “George hide from Beth.  George be ashamed.”

 

“I don’t understand.”

 

He used Meagan’s voice to say, “Hiding under bed!  You should be ashamed!”

 

I blinked.  Did I really want a monster under my bed?  No, but now I wanted answers. “Come in for now George.”  I stepped aside, he walked in and headed to the bedroom. “Wait!  I need to know something first.” He didn’t actually turn around, he just oozed so his eyes were facing the other way.  I shuddered. “OK, first thing, can you try to move more like a human? That is weird.”

 

George nodded.  Then he left his face where it was and turned his body to face me.  That was also disturbing. 

 

I blinked a couple of times before gathering my thoughts to ask, “Why is it that you talk to me but the others hadn’t talked to their… humans?”

 

George blinked.  “Leave it talk to George first! Zoey -” here he copied her bark, “- Leave it! Don’t hurt Zoey! Don’t scare Zoey!  Leave it keep Zoey safe so George doesn’t hurt. Tell George Leave it!”

 

“You-” I stopped as I reviewed that sentence.  He thought I was talking to him, not the dog. Huh.  “Had you ever talked to a human before?”

 

He shook his head. “Human’s try hurt … us.  Not talk to us.”

 

I wondered how many of the other people with handprints on their windows talked to themselves.

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Bonus content, like the floor plan of the house, is available on Tumblr, where I am cleverly known as Pixel-runner.
> 
> Comments please!


	4. Alejandra

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This chapter had a different narrator. See tumblr for details (https://pixel-runner.tumblr.com). Ale is one of the other people in the Narrator's town with a hand print on their house.
> 
> NSFW - contains smut

I looked at the handprint on my door.  I hadn’t known what had caused it, but finding out there had been a creature hiding in my house for the last few days was not news I had wanted.  It was all well and good for Beth and Megan and the others to walk me home, but now I was home and I had to deal with the shadow watching me from next to the apple tree in my front yard.

 

I turned and looked at it.  It looked back. At what Daniel had called ‘The What the Feck Meeting’ the creatures had all been surprisingly uniform.  Black, slightly slimy looking, not to tall, not too intimidating. Silent. That part was eerie. Still, ‘George’ could talk.

 

I narrowed my eyes, “Hey!  What’s your name?”

 

It came over and stretched so that it was at eye level.  That was weird. At 5’9 and standing on the steps, I should be towering over it.

 

It made some whistles and clicks that were something like a cross between a bird and a dolphin and the creature from the Predator movies. 

 

I frowned, “That’s your name?”  It nodded. “Can I call you something I have a hope in hell of pronouncing?”  This nod was more cautious. “When you got here, they said it was the end of the world and I’ve gotta say, sometimes it feels like it.  Is that what you are? My own personal demon to drag me to hell.”

 

It spoke in a bad copy of George’s voice.  “I take care of you.”

 

I shook my head.  “No. It’s bad enough one of you stealing my friend’s voice.  You don’t get to use it too.”

 

It nodded.  This time when it spoke it used a deep bass that wouldn’t have been out of place as the villain in an opera or coming from Avi Kaplan in a Pentatonix song.  “I take care of you.” It rumbled so low that I could feel it in my diaphragm.

 

And a few other places.  I shivered and tried to ignore my body’s response to that voice.

 

“I’m going to call you Omen,” I said.  It had been a bit more of a squeak than I intended.

 

“Omen.” It repeated, stretching the vowel and making the word sound significantly more menacing than when I had said it.  It was holding eye contact in a way that could only be described as aggressive. “Invite Omen in.”

 

I blinked, “What are you, a vampire?”

 

Omen blinked and looked almost confused, “What is vampire?” he rumbled softly.

 

I rolled my eyes, “A human shaped monster that can’t go out during the day, that sucks blood from people, and can’t come into a house without an invitation.”

 

“Beth said don’t come in without invitation.”

 

“Yeah.  I don’t want you breaking into my house!”

 

“So, invite Omen in, little girl.”

 

“Little girl?  My name is Alejandra.  You can call me Ale.”

 

“Hmmm.” it considered this. “Ale still little. Soft. Pretty.” It reached for my face, then froze and added, “Let me touch.”

 

I consider this, then tilted my head so it was touching my cheek.  Omen cupped my face, then stoked the chestnut waves of my hair.

 

“Soft,” he repeated. He twirled one of my curls around his finger then leaned in to smell me. “Invite me in, Ale, I will take care of you,” at that a pink and prehensile tongue snaked out and licked my jawline and down my neck.

 

I swallowed and looked into those six intense faintly glowing red eyes and nodded.

 

Omen stepped over the railing and on to the porch, ducking slightly to fit.  My heart jumped and I turned to unlock the door, hoping it, he, wouldn’t notice my nipples pebbling under my shirt.  I wasn’t expect him to scoop me up like it was nothing and carry me through the doorway.

 

“Humans need sleep.  Where Ale sleep?”

 

“Wait! Don’t you sleep?”

 

“No.  Where do you sleep, Ale?”

 

“I need to get ready first!  Put me down!” I was very slowly lowered so that my feet touched the floor.  I wobbled a bit when Omen let me go then scampered off to the bathroom and firmly shut the door.  I peered into my amber coloured eyes in the mirror and told myself to get a grip. Then I washed my face, brushed my teeth and thought about having a bath before bed.  

 

As if he had read my mind, there was a knock on the door.  “Ale needs sleep,” Omen said firmly.

 

“I’m not a five year old!” I wrenched the door open “Christ!  I will go to bed when I damn well-” whatever else I was going to say completely evaporated as I found Omen leaning against the door frame looking down on me.

 

“Sleep now.”

 

“Um… yeah… fine.”  I headed to my bedroom.  I was too keyed up to sleep.  I was absolutely soaked and once I stripped I was sure I would be dripping.  This was fine. I could go to my room, close my door and take care of it.

 

Omen followed me into my room.

 

“Whoa!  OK! I did NOT invite you into my room!”

 

“You sleep.  I will watch you sleep.”

 

“I can’t sleep with you watching me!”

 

“Need help to sleep?  How can I help?”

 

“Oh my god!” my eyes nearly bugged out of my head, he was just standing there patiently looking down at me.  “Um. I just need you to wait in the living room and I will figure it out, OK?”

 

Omen’s eyes narrowed, “What Ale need to sleep?”

 

“Nothing!  I’ll take care of it!” I was breathing faster now.

 

Omen stepped up even closer and growled down at me, “I take care of you.”

 

“It’s embarrassing!”

 

“Ah!” Omen said with understanding.  “Humans find sex embarrassing. You need sex and don’t want to say.”

 

I gaped at him.

 

“Let me take care of you.  Ale? Please.”

 

I squeezed my eyes tight shut for a moment then nodded.

 

Omen put his hands under my ass and lifted me so that my legs went around his hips.  I coiled my arms around his neck so he wouldn’t drop me. He nuzzled my face and neck and started to rumble.  As he lowered me to the bed, I realized it was an incredibly deep purr. He didn’t actually let got of my hips, instead he sprouted a second set of arms from his shoulders and began removing my clothing, all the while purring and kneading my ass like an oversized kitten.

 

I sat up enough to undo my bra and pull it off before he caught my hands and pinned them to the headboard.

 

“I take care of you” Omen growled, his face suddenly right up to mine.

 

I swallowed and nodded.  I was panting too hard to actually answer.  It was amazing that while one hand was holding my wrists another was stroking my chest and the other set had managed to get my jeans off.  “Holy shit! How many arms do you have?” I gasped.

 

“As many as you need.” Omen replied.

 

I whimpered a little, “How many cocks do you have?”

 

Now he smirked down at me, “How many do you need?”

 

His face was right above mine, looking intently into my eyes, but his body lowered so his chest was pressed against mine.  I could feel extra mouths licking my breasts, extra teeth scraping lightly over me. My legs were still wrapped around his waist.  As I moaned my eyes rolled back in my head and my hips ground against his body. 

 

Omen’s purr got louder, almost a growl now.  “Ale sleeps. Omen stops.”

 

I forced my eyes open and whimpered, “I’m awake.”

 

“Mmmmm.  I try harder to make you sleep.”  Something happened between my legs.  A soft tendril stroked my clit. Another swirl in the wetness where my cunt was drooling before tentatively nudging my hole. “Invite Omen in.”

 

I nodded frantically. 

 

“Ale must invite.”

 

My whole body shivered, cunt clenching desperately at nothing.  It was too much and not enough. I whimpered. Omen grinned showing too many teeth and licked my lips before sliding his tongue past my lips and dipping briefly down my throat. My eyes closed again.  Everything stopped. I forced them open to see Omen grinning at me.

 

“Invite.” he insisted.  Now the tendrils stoking every part of my pussy were joined by something bigger, instantly nudging at my folds.

 

I gasped.  “Omen, please!”

 

He snapped his hips forward slamming full length into me in a single thrust.  My back arched, my head flopped back and I screamed.

 

Omen was very still as I came hard enough to squirt.  After a moment as I lay there shaking, he began to move.  Everything. Every part of me being stroked by hands and mouths that were hot and cold at the same time as I felt the full weight of him pounding relentlessly into me.  Everything was a light with pleasure and I was helpless to do anything but take it.

 

As my world went white, I heard Omen cum with a roar as he flooded me,  His seed gushing from between my legs. As I passed out, he said, “Now you sleep, little human.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments make the writing go.


	5. Meagan

I came home and started my bed time routine.  I got out my biggest stock pot and filled it with water to boil.  We still had water, we still had electricity, but the water was well water and we had no idea if it was safe to drink.  We also didn’t know how long the electricity would last. I personally suspected it would go out in the dead of winter, but then I’m a cynic.

 

While tomorrow’s water was boiling, I used the last of today’s to fill my water bottle and brush my teeth.

 

I hadn’t had cell service in months, but I had a bunch of books downloaded from Audible and I tended to leave them playing in the house while I was home just for the company.  I hesitated as I opened the app. Maybe I wasn’t as alone as I had previously thought. 

 

“Is anyone there?”  There wasn’t any response.  “It’s OK. I would rather know you are here than always wonder if you are secretly watching.”  Still no response. I put on George Carlin. I could pretty much recite the routine. It was no longer funny, but it was a reminder of what the world had been.

 

When they came, the death rates were highest in the middle east and America.  Places where the guns were. Unfortunately, the religious wing nuts had spun this as the invaders being demons sent to bring down the righteous.  The last TV footage had been of the President launching a nuclear strike, followed by smuggled out footage of missile silos failing to launch.

 

Then the President’s twitter account went down and didn’t come back.

 

In my little town we just kept holding on.  We had no idea if another country had successfully launched a nuclear strike.  As Terry had said, there is nothing we can do about it either way. It wasn’t worth worrying about.

 

That was before his psych meds ran out.

 

Watching what could only be described as his descent into madness when they did had been horrible.

 

Once the water came to a rolling boil, I turned off the stove and put the lid on the pot.  It would be ready to go into the fridge in the morning. And with that, I crawled into bed and let George tell me a bedtime story.

 

George!  Ha! I was certain she hadn’t been thinking of that when she named the creature George.  In the darkness, I stared at the ceiling and waited to see if it would blink. Poor Beth!  That was a terrifying way to meet your creature. At least mine had hid under the bed.

 

Huh. 

 

I rolled on to my belly and wiggled around so I could peek under my bed without getting up and letting it know I was checking.  As I slowly lowered my eyes below the bed frame, the darkness blinked. 

 

I screamed and flailed and started to fall out of bed.  The darkness surged forward and caught my head and neck, then my shoulders, then my back so that I ended up laying flat on my back on the alien on the floor.

 

As I lay there, waiting to be able to breathe normally again, I had a million things running through my head.  But top of mind was, “THIS IS WHY I SAID YOU CAN’T HIDE UNDER MY BED!!!!”

 

In a voice like pitch, it rumbled, “I’m sorry. Are you hurt, Meagan?”

 

I tensed.  “How come you sound like a first language speaker and George sounds like something out of a Tarzan cartoon?”

 

“You have supplied me with language opportunities.”

 

“I have never spoken to you before!”

 

The creature snorted.  Then it began to move. I could feel it bunching under me and found myself being carefully tucked back into bed. “We don’t need you to talk to us, we just need to be able to hear language in use.  You have certainly provided that, although I prefer the Harry Potter stories to George Carlin.”

 

“You like Potter?”

 

“Yes, although it took me a while to understand the idea of fiction.”

 

“Wait! I haven’t played any Harry potter in the last two days!”

 

“It wasn’t hard to figure out how to use your iPhone, after watching you do it.”

 

I thought about that for a few moments.  “Well, it certainly explains the accent.”

 

“I can change it, if it bothers you.”  This time it was using George Carlin’s voice.

 

“I think I liked the other one better.”  I thought for a moment. “What’s your name?”

 

It chuckled darkly, “Nothing you would be able to pronounce, I can assure you.  You wouldn’t even be able to hear all the sounds involved let alone reproduce them.  Why don’t you pick a pet name for me and we’ll go with that.”

 

Great.  I had to get the patronizing one.  “Are you male or female or other?”

 

“None of the above, although I am capable of emulating whichever you prefer.”

 

“I’m going to just call you Shadow, because I am all creative like that.”

 

Shadow chuckled, “Are you sure would wouldn’t prefer Puppy?”

 

“That it!  You are copying Neil Gaiman!”

 

Shadow shrugged, “More or less.  I lowered the tone a little to make it more comfortable for me.”  He considered me in silence for a while. “You should try to sleep, Meagan.  You have had a long day.”

 

“Fine, but no more hiding under the bed.  You can go sleep on the couch.”

 

“I don’t sleep, but I wouldn’t mind reading some of your books, if that’s OK with you.”

 

“As long as you are careful with them.”  I thought for a moment, “Shadow? Why are you here?  I mean, why are you and your people on my planet?”

 

Suddenly, he was leaning over me, watching my face.  “Can you keep a secret?” he asked.

 

“Sure.”

 

“So can I.”

 

I blinked.  He laughed. It was vaguely hyena like.  I shivered.

 

I sighed, “So, with I get the kind of same smart ass answer if I ask if the water is safe to drink?  I mean, we are boiling it to kill bacteria, but that won’t help if we have mercury contamination.”

 

Shadow sat properly on the bed looking humanoid, he had even faked a nose.  “The water is safe, we have been supplying it and your electricity for a number of months now.  We aren’t turning the gas back on, but we will make sure all the houses in town are warm once the snow comes.”

 

I snuggled a little deeper under the covers, “Why me?”

 

“I admire your library.”

 

I blinked, “You are in it for my BOOKS?!”

Shadow laughed again, it wasn’t any better the second time.  “You have a huge collection! You surely must value them. Is it really so surprising that someone else might too?”

 

“Uh,  _ yeah _ !  In all the stories aliens turn up for cattle mutilation or anal probes or for using us as hosts for their parasitic offspring.  I have never heard of them coming for our libraries!”

 

Apparently, this was the most hilarious thing Shadow had ever heard.  He laughed hard enough to rattle the windows. After a long while, when he finally ran down, he gasped, “That’s because those stories were written by humans!  They reflect your concerns, not ours.”

 

I honestly didn’t know what to say to that.  As I was staring at him in disbelief, he cupped the back on my neck, kissed my forehead and said, “Good night, Meagan.”  Then he left.

 

I lay there, staring at my ceiling wondering what the hell had just happened.

  
  



	6. Sam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Commission work for the lovely Jillamy! That you for supporting my doggo's tick meds!

I unlocked my door and went inside.  I know a lot of people don’t these days, figuring that if something happened, they could be rescued.  Me, I grew up in the city. The only time my door is unlocked is when I’m walking through it. I felt a vague sense of superiority about that.  They was no way a creepy alien had gotten past me without me knowing it.

 

I hung up my coat and cracked my neck then my shoulders.  Bringing my fingers up to try to massage some of the tension out of the nape of my neck.  As I turned, it was standing right behind me, reaching for my neck. I screamed and pushed its arm away and instinctively slammed my fist into its solar plexus.  Or where its solar plexus would be. 

 

The blackness opened to accept my fist and closed around it keeping me from pulling away.

 

They don’t attack first, but if you attack them, they rip you to shreds.

 

I started to hyperventilate.  My eyes went wide and I was helpless to look away.

 

It started hissing at me.  A hand reached towards my head and I started to whimper.  I couldn’t even blink; tears running down my face, I turned my head to track its hand.  This was it, I thought. Part of me wanted to struggled, to pull my hand away. I felt like a deer in the headlights, knowing death was coming but helpless to resist it.

 

It’s fingers felt warm, but tingly as they caressed my cheek on their way to cup my head.  Now I closed my eyes and waited for it to snap my neck. Instead they with drew and it repeated the action.  On the third pass of it’s fingers through the DIY bob that I had carved out of my overgrown pixie cut, I realized it was petting me.

 

And still hissing.

 

“Are… Are you trying to be comforting?” I asked in disbelief.

 

“Comfort Sam.”

 

I frowned at it.  Six glowing eyes, no nose no mouth that I could see.  I shivered. “Can I have my hand back now?”

 

It nodded, but all six eyes squeezed shut in a way that was disturbingly erotic as my fist left its body.  I shivered again. Time to change the subject. “How did you get in here and how do you know my name?”

 

It started clicking and trilling, explaining in desidely inhuman sounds.  Suddenly, it stopped. It just cocked its head and looked at me. Then it took my hand and pulled me into the living room.  It had me sit on the couch, then it wrapped me in my throw blanket and lit the wood stove.

 

That was when I realized I had been trembling with fear since I first saw it.  My hands felt like ice, but I was also sweating. I tried to slow my breathing.  It didn’t help.

 

“Did you poison me?”  Its head snapped around.  “For hitting you, I mean. I … I can’t stop shaking.”

 

It shook its head.  “Cold?”

 

“I… yeah.  I’m cold.”

 

That was when I realized, that up until now, it had been trying to walk like a human.  The leg movements were wrong and the whole thing had been off. But as soon as I said I was cold, it hurried off to the bathroom.  In its hurry, it forgot to pretend and didn’t bother walking. I just flowed.

 

I heard the water start running in the tub.  Now that it wasn’t in the room with me, I could calm down a little.  I snuggled a little tighter in the blanket. I kept thinking of George saying ‘I take care of Leave It.’  This one knew my name.

 

I saw movement out of the corner of my eye.  As soon as I turned my head, it froze. It stood there for a moment, then went back to trying to walk like a human.  “Do you even have leg bones?”

 

It kept its eyes locked on my and jiggled its head in a bad attempt at shaking its head.  “No bones.”

 

“What? NONE?”

 

“Teeth.”  It said. Then it smiled showing rows of sharp teeth.

 

I snapped my eyes shut.  “So, you’re what? A liquid? Some sort of plasma?”

 

The was long pause.  “Like liquid. But also …  shape. Not plasma. Not….” It trailed off.  

 

I opened my eyes and looked at it.  “Liquid but also the container?” I suggested.  “Like ink in an Inkwell?”

 

It stood there for a long moment.  I wondered how much of that it understood.  Then it hurried forward, scooped me up and carried me towards the bathroom.  “Yes. Inkwell.”

 

With more arms than it had a moment ago, it turned off the tub and started unwrapping my blanket.  I pulled away.

 

“Please?  Let Inkwell.  I take care of Sam.”

 

I thought about that.

 

“Please?”

 

It was bigger than me.  It could easily just do whatever it wanted to me.  But instead it was asking and waiting for my reply.  I looked it up and down. It didn’t have any obvious reproductive ….  bits. But it also didn’t have three arms five minutes ago.

 

“Just… be careful.”

 

“Inkwell very careful.  Take care. All care. Careful of Sam.”

 

“Is Inkwell your name now?”   
  


It had been trying to open the buttons on my shirt.  It didn’t exactly stop, but four of the eyes kept looking at my button, while the other two came up to look at me.  “Sam name Inkwell?” It was definitely a question.

 

While I thought about that, it got me out of my shirt and frowned at my bra.  I wasn’t sure if that was its natural expression or if it was just copying a “What the hell is going on?” look it had seen on someone else.  “Yeah. I guess I did name you Inkwell. I can get undressed by myself.”

 

It gave up on trying to figure out the bra and went after the button on my jeans instead.

 

“That will work better if you let me take my shoes off first.”

 

It kept trying to unbutton my fly, but other hands pulled off my flats.  It was almost comically pleased to get my button undone, but I didn’t get long to admire its expression because the hands that had removed my shoes where trying to take off my socks and tickling my feet in the process.  I screamed and started laughing and trying to wiggle away.

 

Inkwell turned into a puddle then flattened himself against the wall like wallpaper.  His eyes were so wide they were almost round. “Sam…. hurt?” he whispered.

 

Suddenly, Inkwell was a person to me.  Just like that. He got scared and that was all it took for him to no longer be an it.  

 

“I’m not hurt.  That just tickled.”

 

“Tickled?”

 

I stood up and shucked my pants, then my underwear and stepped into the steaming tub.  Inkwell may be a person, but it wasn’t as though he had a dick. There was no was an invertebrate creature from outer space was going to be reproductively compatible. As I lowered my tired bones into the warm water, I tried to think of how to explain tickles to someone who had no reference point for that.

 

“There are… places on a human that require extra care when handling.”

 

Inkwell was still part of the wall, but he pulled his head away from it to nod.  “Inkwell not handle Sam-” here it broke off and one one side of its surface it sprouted a cock and balls and on the other a very convincing labia.  

 

It was just so unexpected that I gasped and turned my head, “Whoa! Ok!  Put that away! That’s not what I’m talking about.” I considered the wall along the tub.  “Look. Places where we have lots of nerve endings that don’t get stimulated on a regular basis, soles of the feet, armpits, tummies, when someone touches them unexpectedly or…  I don’t even know. Sometimes tickling is nice if you trust the person doing it and they stop before it becomes overwhelming. But it can also be used as a  [ form of torture ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tickle_torture) .”

 

Inkwell’s eyes went wide again and he oozed down the wall and headed under the bathroom door.

 

“Wait!  You didn’t do that!”  The puddle stopped, but didn’t come back.

 

“Inkwell hurt Sam.”

 

“No.  You stopped.  It’s fine. Touching works better if I can see it coming, though.  I’m not as good with the unexpected.” Inkwell slowly went from puddle shaped to crouching human shape and very slowly reached out to stroke my hair.  “See, that was fine.” He let my hair tangle in his fingers before making a fist and carefully giving it a gentle tug. “Still fine, but that is a sometimes touch.”  I couldn’t help it. The “ [ Cookies are a Sometimes Food ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH9IO6iMO78) ” song popped into my head and I fought not to giggle.

 

Inkwell let go of my hair and ran his hand down my back and into the bath water.  I grabbed the chunk of sea sponge I had in the tub and handed it to him. “Could you wash my back while you are there?”

 

Inkwell looked at the sponge for a moment, squeezing it and turning it over in his hands.  Then he handed it back to me and made his hand into a sponge and started to wash my back. His sponge was much softer than the one I had for my tub.  I hummed softly in appreciation and leaned forward.

 

“Expect touch.” Inkwell said softly and I had a moment to wonder what he meant before I felt fingers carefully copying my action earlier of trying to massage some of the knots out of my neck.

 

I closed my eyes and whispered, “That’s nice.”

 

Inkwell finished my back and carefully repositioned me so that I was leaning against the back of the tub with my arms draped over the sides.  He ran his sponge over my chest and down my belly. It was a little weird being touched like this. He was so careful that it was almost sensual.  Not what I was expecting from a formless shadow monster. The sponge turned back into hands that carefully massaged my neck and shoulders then slid down to massage my breasts.

 

I stiffened and stopped breathing for a moment.  

 

The hands with drew.  “Sam hurt?” Inkwell asked, nervously.

 

“I’m… not hurt.” I said cautiously.  “That isn’t someplace human’s touch each other -” I broke off trying to think of how to explain petting when the internet couldn’t even agree on where second base was anymore. ”It’s… romantic touching.”

 

“Sam want romantic touching?”

 

My knee jerk reaction was to say a loud and definite NO!  But was that really true? I hadn’t really been touched by anyone since before the invasion.  I knew I didn’t want Inkwell in me, but… his caresses had been … nice.

 

“I don’t want sex.” I said firmly.  I need to make that perfectly clear, to both of us.

 

Inkwell managed to look confused.  “Not touching sex.”

 

I blushed hard and reached for the shampoo.  My hair was currently putting the dirty in dirty blonde.  

 

“Please?”  Inkwell asked.

 

“Please what?”  He pointed at the shampoo. “You want to wash my hair?”  He nodded. “Shampoo is impossible to get these days. It also hurts if you get it in my eyes.”  He nodded again. “OK. Hold out your hand.” He did and I squeezed a pea sized amount into his hand.  That was the other benefit of short hair. Less shampoo.

 

Inkwell sniffed the shampoo, then rubbed it between his fingers, then between his hands.   He looked at me with two of his eyes and at his hands with the others. Then he carefully reached for my head.  He started out just petting me, but when the shampoo started to lather, it felt like he was trying to grind it into my scalp.

 

“Whoa!  Stop! That’s enough!” Inkwell pulled his hands away and I finished washing my hair while he looked on entranced.  When I leaned back and dunked my hair under the water to rinse he was suddenly leaning over me watching nervously.  “What?” I asked.

 

“Sam… hurt-danger?”

 

I thought about this as I rinsed.  “Are you worried I’m going to drown?”  Careful nod. I sat up; he relaxed. “I’m ok.  I didn’t put my nose and mouth under the water.  Even then that would be OK as long as I knew it was coming and wasn’t under the water too long.”  I thought for a moment. “Can you drown?”

 

He shook his head.  “Not…” he made a sound like someone with a really stuffed up nose breathing “like Sam people.”

 

I giggled, “Is that what we sound like to you?”

 

He didn’t answer.   “Inkwell touch Sam? No sex, romantic touch?”

 

“Umm.  Maybe a little, will you stop when I say?”

 

He nodded, “I stop when Sam say.”

 

I was expecting him to just go for my boobs, but instead he gently caressed my face, the tips of his fingers had the texture of the fancy cosmetic sponges I had long ago used up.  I closed my eyes, “That’s nice.”

 

“Expect touch,” he said, then oh so very carefully stroked my eyelids and down my cheeks.  He ran his fingers over my jawline, then trailed then down my neck and traced the lines of my collar bones.  He gently cupped my breasts lifting them slightly, then letting them fall. About the third time he did this, I opened my eyes to watch.  His expression reminded me of a preschooler seeing something new for the first time. Nope. Not sexual at all.

 

Then he pinched my nipples and I jumped.  Two of his eyes searched up to my face. “Hurt?”

 

“Just… be careful is all.”

 

He nodded and leaned forward to lave at one with his tongue, then the other.  “Make better.”

 

I chuckled.  Then something occurred to me, “Are you an adult, Inkwell?”

 

He snatched his hands away and stood up, clearly upset by the question.  “Adult! Yes!” then his voice changed to that of the president for one word, “Soldier!”

 

I flinched.  “I’m sorry to offend you.  I don’t know how to tell.”

 

Inkwell nodded and relaxed a little. “I touch Sam?”

 

I honestly didn’t know what to say to that.  My body was definitely responding. Despite the warm water, my nipples had been hard from Inkwell’s attention even before his pinch.  I took a deep breath and blew it out. “If you keep touching me like that, I'm going to end up wanting more.”

 

Inkwell furrowed his brows a little, “Sam want more, I give Sam more,” he said, clearly not seeing the problem.

 

I chuckled, then nodded.

 

His hands explored my breast some more than traveled down my belly.  I pointedly move the hand that was curiously poking at my belly button.  He began to carefully tug at the trimmed fuzz between my legs. “You do like hair pulling, don’t you?”

 

“Hair new.  I don’t have hair. Very-” he stopped as he accidentally brushed my clit and my hips jerked.  He looked at my face and I honestly can’t even imagine what he saw there. But he said, “Touch careful, no hurt, no sex, stop when Sam say stop.  Please?”

 

“Stay outside my body, but…. Let’s see what happens, shall we?”

 

He poured part of himself into the tub, losing the humanoid appearance.  His eyes were underwater, between my legs carefully watching what my cunt did as he played with my lips and clit.  It was oddly sexy for was was clearly an almost scientific study of my nethers. Something soft swirled over my asshole, then up my taint.  It divided into four tracing both the inside and the outside of my lips before reforming into a single gentle tendril which coiled around my clit and gave a gentle sucking tug.

 

I whimpers a little and leaned back spreading my legs further, then pulling my calves out of the water and hooking my legs over the edge of the tub.  Inkwell flowed completely into the tub so that I was laying in a puddle of black at the bottom of the tub, water frantically trying to escape through the tub’s overflow.

 

The black liquid tingled feeling both hot and cold as it oozed under me then firmed up supporting my head and neck above the waterline like the world’s most bizzare sex wedge.  I tipped my head back and leaned against him for a moment before I felt something swirl between my legs again. I lifted my head to look. My ass was still sitting on the bottom of the tub, but Inkwell’s blackness enveloped me.  His eyes still watching me from just over my pubic bone.

 

“Expect touch,” he said and I had a fraction of a second to wonder where the voice was even coming from before he started to dissolve around me.

 

It was like nothing I had ever felt before.  Soft tendrils of sentient warm thick liquid silk danced over me.  He found all the places that made me feel good and concentrated on stoking them.  He experimented with different textures and temperature and watched me squirm, all the while feeling like he was licking my clit.

 

I’m not entirely sure he even noticed when I came.  He didn’t even pause, continuing to stroke and caress me despite my bucking hips and shuddering thighs.  My cunt clenched on nothing and I wanted to change the rules. I wanted something inside of me, but as I gathered myself to say that I felt something like teeth scrape gently over my clit and I came again.  My back arched, my mouth fell open in a silent scream.

 

The teeth scraped and nibbled at the insides of my thighs.  I gripped the sides of the tub and curled towards the eyes that were watching me unblinkingly.

 

He coordinated so that his touch on my nipples and clit were warm and soft, then I heard “Expect touch,” and suddenly they flashed ice cold and clamped tightly for a moment.

 

This time I moaned as I came.

 

Then everything fell away.  He reformed and humanoid with his knees bent and me leaning back on his legs.  His hands supported my ass as he held my cunt to his face and concentrated on frantically licking my clit until every muscle in my body tensed.  The world went white as the sensations completely overwhelmed me.

 

\----

 

Sometime later, I woke in bed.  I was laying under the covers, wrapped in a warm towel.  When I shifted to roll over, I realized I was wrapped in Inkwell.  I ran a hand over his body and went back to sleep.

  
  



	7. Ale in the Morning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> oops! I missed a section.
> 
> Thanks Jillamy for the catch. I think this should auto fix the order.
> 
> Morning after anxiety

I woke up to the smell of toast. I had learned to bake bread. We all had. One of the grandmothers had taught everyone. It was sour dough, of course, and without preservatives, it really wasn’t as nice the next day. Unless you toasted it with jam. It would be interesting when the sugar ran out.

It took me a moment to remember the night before. But only a moment. My body still felt full, the insides of my thighs and everything between them felt sticky. I sat up and threw back the covers intending to go find a washcloth to clean up.

The insides of my legs were covered in a sticky black tar. I tried to wipe it off, but it wouldn’t budge. I found an edge and tried to pick at it with my finger nail, wondering if it would pull up like the sugar wax I used to use. 

It… sort of worked. I just couldn’t quite get under it. Maybe if i just dug a little harder.

Suddenly the world tilted and Omen was standing over me. “Ale hurt.” He rumbled.

“I’m just trying to clean up.” I protested. He growled at me and I flinched. Maybe I wasn’t allowed to clean up. The idea of spending the rest of my days filled with tar was nauseating. I shuddered.

“Ale not want seed?” Omen managed to sound so distraught at that I started to panic. When I scrambled away, I noticed the place I had been picking was bleeding.

“I… I didn’t know it wouldn’t come off last night when we…” I didn’t even know how to say it. I didn’t want to say it. Last night when I fucked, when I allowed myself to be fucked by something that wasn’t human.

I made it to the toilet in time to be sick. As I knelt there, praying to the porcelain gods, I felt Omen come up behind me. He ran a hand over my naked back. As it rested against my tailbone, I could feel his…. seed moving inside of me. I whimpered. There was a hand between my shoulder blades preventing me from sitting up, one on my tailbone and another slid under my belly and lifted my ass in the air. I started to cry, expecting to be raped as unseen things writhed inside of me. Omen clicked and chattered, then stepped back and walked away. When I sat up, all of the ick was gone.

I climbed into the shower and turned on the water as hot as it would go. Then I sat on the floor and inspected myself. The place where I had been picking was still bleeding but the tar on my legs was gone. A careful finger in each of my holes found them to be empty as well. I sighed in relief, then had a little cry under the stream of water. It wasn’t rape. I had absolutely, enthusiastically consented, but in the cold light of morning… I was full of regrets.

I sat on the floor of the shower until the hot water ran out. I kept sitting there until my teeth started to chatter. In fact, I sat there long enough that my teeth stopped chattering and I felt completely numb. At some point, Omen came in and turned off the water. He wrapped me up in a every towel I owed then backed away. 

He knelt on the floor next to be a whispered, “Ale hurt?” When I didn’t answer, he added, “Omen hurt Ale? Need help? Need Beth and Zoey and Leave it?”

That was a good question. Did I want everyone to know what I had done? ‘What I have done’ sounded like a thirteen year old catholic school girl who let let boy she liked look up her skirt. Those days were long past me. I doubt the others could answer my questions. Questions I should have asked first.

I couldn’t bring myself to look at the shadow monster with six eyes as I asked, “Am I going to get pregnant or catch and ST - a disease?”

I could feel Omen looking at me. “Omen not hurt Ale. No disease. No babies.” He sounded disappointed at that last one. “I take care of you.”

“What does that even mean?” I asked.

He didn’t answer. After a long while, he said, “Ale - you are afraid of me.”

“I - Yeah. I wasn’t expecting to wake up covered in tar.”

“Not tar!”

“Fine. Not tar, seed, whatever. Black sticky stuff I couldn’t get off. That was weird and scary.”

We just sat there, not saying anything until the edges of my hair started to dry and I realized that if I didn’t brush it now, it was going to be a pain in the ass to comb out later. “You should go.” I wasn’t expecting what happened next. Omen melted into a puddle, oozed up the wall and let himself out via the window. Which he pulled closed behind him.

I got up and pulled the curtains tightly closed. Then I used one of the towels to squeeze the water out of my hair and brushed it and my teeth before getting dressed and heading to the kitchen.

I found the table set and breakfast waiting for me. Buttered toast cut into soldiers, two soft boiled eggs ready for dipping. A mug of tea that I was suspected had a spoonful of cherry jelly in it for sweetner. Breakfast, just as I liked it.

It was the first time a man had made me breakfast the morning after.

But Omen wasn’t really a man, was he?

I looked at it for a long time before deciding to eat it rather than throw it away. It wasn’t an easy decision. I had to weigh food safety of eating cold and undercooked eggs and the idea that it might be deliberately poisoned against exactly how hard it was to get food these days.

In the end, I mashed the eggs and cooked them the rest of the way in my frying pan to make sure I killed off any salmonella that might be waiting for me.

The tea was perfect.

As I was washing the dishes, I noticed there was a new addition to the plant shelf over my sink. Five little pots of succulents and a black sphere in a ramekin now graced my window sill.

I stared at that last one for a long time, trying to figure out what it meant. I could guess where it had been. Part of me wanted to throw it away. Part of me didn’t want to touch it. But mostly I wondered why he had saved it.

It felt like it had meaning that I was missing. Try as I might, I could not figure it out. And so, I resolved to just ignore it. I could deal with it if it got any bigger.

Or attacked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments please


	8. Chapter 8

### Leave it

Zoey didn’t believe in sleeping in, no matter how little sleep I got the night before. 7AM was time for me to get up, send her out to pee, and feed her breakfast. The morning after George had tried to hide in my closet was hard.  That morning it felt more like I had a nap than an actual good night’s sleep.

 

While Zoey was out having a pee, I checked the spare room and found that Beth was allowed to sleep in.  I am ashamed to admit that I felt a brief pang of resentment at that. Needless to say, I wasn’t in the best mood.  I had filled Zoey’s bowl and was planning on heading straight back to bed when I heard Zoey doing her frantic ‘come see what I found bark.’

 

Since the last time I had heard that sound she had cornered a skunk,  I was torn between running to see and dreading what I would fine. 

 

It was a box.  A white box tucked into the corner of my back porch.  Zoey was currently in downward dog position with her tail wagging frantically as she tried to convince the box to come and play with her.  I gave it a long look, then ignored it and dragged Zoey back inside.

 

Beth was standing in my kitchen.  “Gawd, she’s noisy. This is why I don’t have a dog.”

 

I bit back my suggestion that she go home if she didn’t like it.  I was just too tired to deal with this right now. “I’m going back to bed.  I didn’t get much sleep last night.”

 

The next time I got up, it was almost lunch and I felt a lot better.

 

Beth was nowhere to be seen.  She wasn’t anywhere in the house.  I scrambled into clothes and grabbed Zoey’s leash and went to go find her.  

 

The first people I ran into were the Campbell family.  “What did you get?” Marion asked.

 

I stared blankly at her.  “What?”

 

“Everyone had a white box waiting for them this morning.  The boys got new shoes and two sets of new clothes each. Plus there was a bunch of stuff to restock my pantry.  What was in yours?”

 

I stared at her.  “I… uh… I haven’t looked,” I admitted.

 

“Well, go check it out.  We are all headed to the library to trade for stuff we got but don’t want,” she added.

 

“I need to find Beth.”

 

“Beth? Why?  She’s fine. She’s back at her place.  Her box was delivered to her house, not yours.  Plus that disgusting hand print is gone.” Here she peered over my shoulder at my house and shuddered.  “How’s the alien doing?”

 

“I haven’t seen him today,”  I said flatly, not liking the implication of that.

 

“No one has.  Think they left?”

 

“I don’t know.  But they landed months ago, so I doubt it.”

 

She looked at me like I was an idiot.  “Left our town, I mean. Maybe the boxes were parting gifts.”

 

I shook my head.  “Maybe. But that just sounds like wishful thinking to me.”

 

Joshua Campbell came over at that point.  He was eleven years old but taller than me.  “What you get?”   
  


“I haven’t looked.”

 

“Let’s go find out!” he insisted.

 

I narrowed my eyes at that.  “So… they just appeared?”

 

“Yeah.  On the front step.  One for each person in the house.  You must have brought yours in because Beth said she didn’t see it.”

 

“The only thing on my front step is the plate I broke the day John and Mary died,” I said honestly.

 

“Huh.  That’s weird,” said thirteen year old Mike Campbell.

 

I stared at him in disbelieve. “Random presents turn up all over town and you think that my empty porch is weird?”

 

He frowned at me.  “Yeah. Like, maybe it’s like Santa Claus and you didn’t get on ‘cus you’re on the naughty list.”

 

I went very still then.  This was starting to sound dangerously like when a town goes from being a team to being a mob.

 

His mom came over and gave him a smack.  “It is probably just someplace she hasn’t looked yet.”

 

I shuffled nervously, “I’ll just go look again.”  I turned and hurried into my house.

 

A few hours later, someone rang my doorbell.  It was Ale. She looked tired and worried. “Are you OK?” I asked.

 

“I… I don’t know.  Can I talk to George for a moment?”

 

I looked around.  “I don’t know where he is.  He left last night and I haven’t seen him today.  Why?”

 

I made peppermint tea.  She told me everything. I filled her in on how my night went.

 

“Maybe the boxes are parting gifts?” she suggested nervously.

 

I shrugged.  “Maybe. I just wish we had a doctor in town to look you over.”

 

She reached across the table and held my hands.  “You don’t understand. It was the best, most mind blowing sex of my life.”

 

“Right up until he clogged your plumbing with tar.” I pointed out.

 

Ale hesitated.  “Ok. Fair. I could have done with some warning about that.  But still. I want another go on that ride.”

 

“Hmmm,” I said thoughtfully, sipping my tea.  “Puts a whole new spin on the idea of ‘I will take care of you,’ doesn’t it?”  Ale nodded frantically. “Have you talked to anyone else?”

 

Ale nodded, “Meagan said hers was gone in the morning.  Sam just said she didn’t want to talk about it. I haven’t had anytime to find any of the others.”

 

“We should go check on Benni.”

 

Ale snorted, “Oh she is going to love that.”

 

###  **Benni**

I frowned at the mystery box on my front step.  It was what Munchkin would call ‘two hands big’ and i wasn’t sure it was worth the effort of going back inside to get my second arm.  Now that shopping and work were firmly crossed off my daily to do list, I spent a lot of time hiking and didn’t bother putting it on right away some days.

 

Gardening had been fun.  Even if a big part of that fun was giving the finger to all the people who said I wouldn’t be able to do it.  Sadly, it was over for the season and it was starting to get quite cold at night. I was going to have to figure out the wood stove soon.

 

As I turned to go back inside I was faced, once again by the smeary black handprint on the glass of my door.  Paw print? Actually from this angle, it looked like something a cat would do. A fucking ginormous cat.

 

“Hey! Benni!”

 

Oh god.  Here we go again.  “Hi Ryan, what do you need?”  That always put him off his game.  The suggestion that he might need my help.  This was no exception. 

 

He was flustered as he replied, “Need any help getting that inside?”

 

“Nah.  I’m going to leave it for now.  I can bring it in later.”

 

“What if someone steals it?” Ryan suggested, as though that was going to convince me to let him in my house.

 

I shrugged, “Then I am not worse off than I was before I got up this morning.  Besides, we haven’t had enough civil breakdown for stealing yet. Not in this town, anyway.  You really think that box is going to be the tipping point?”

 

Ryan opened and closed his mouth like a goldfish.  It wasn’t a good look for him. Mind you, Ryan had peaked as the high school quarterback before talking a job in his dad’s garage.  It was honest work, but the man had no usable skills once the gas ran out. I felt horrible for him mom, trapped in a house with her useless husband and four equally useless sons.

 

At least Mrs Campbell was making her boys help out.  Ryan’s mom let them treat her like a slave. And none of the sons seemed to consider that it wasn’t a great audition if they ever wanted to move in with a woman.  No, Ryan could keep his lazy ass out of my house, thank you very much.

 

“Off you go, then.” I suggested, gently but firmly.

 

At least he got the hint and left.

 

A few minutes later, I was inside and saw him trying to scrub the mark off my door.  I debated if it was worth going out to tell him to piss off, but I didn’t really want to give him any more time today.  It was times like this that I wished I have a big barky dog like Zoey. Except I knew how much effort it was to run the rabbit warren in Leave It had set up in the garage to keep her fed.  And I suspected that if supplies started to get low, it would be Ryan and his brothers that dug out the guns and came knocking on her door to take the meat rabbits.

 

Or maybe not.  Now that she was officially known as Leave It, maybe the aliens would keep her, Zoey and the bunnies safe.

I didn’t really know how to predict they would react.  ‘I take care of you’ is a pretty broad statement and I hadn’t really seen the one assigned to me around yet.

 

Eventually, I heard Ale giving Ryan shit for messing with my door.  There was a lot of back and forth and him calling her and Leave It bitches.  That did it. I was at the door in an instant. I flung it open and screamed, “Ryan!  Go home!”

 

He looked a little taken aback, but he turned and left.

 

Ale nudged the box with her foot, “Want me to bring that in?” she offered.

 

See, that right there is why these two are good friends.  Where Ryan had asked, ‘Do you need help?” thereby implying ‘because you are not a whole person,’ Ale had just asked if I wanted her do do something.  Maybe anyone else would not see the difference or call it stupid, but it mattered to me.

 

I frowned at the box.  “I’m not sure I want it brought in yet.”

 

R- Leave It nodded.  “I keep thinking of the smallpox laced blankets the army used to hand out to American Indians.”

 

Ale looked a little sick.   “I haven’t open mine yet. I was too freaked out.”

 

Leave it shrugged.  “Apparently the Campbell boys got new shoes and clothes and stuff they want to trade.  They are having a swap at the Library.”

 

“Are you going?” I asked.

 

Leave It pressed her lips together.  “George doesn’t think like us. But he does think.  I’m not sure I would be willing to give away something he thought I would need.  Assuming the boxes are from him. Them. Whatever.”

 

“You trust him,” I observed.

 

She looked at Ale and appeared to consider this.  “Yeah,” she said, finally, “to a point. I trust them to not actively try to hurt me and to not passively hurt me as long as they understand what is happening.  I worry about what happens when we run into the place where their culture’s idea of helping is not the same as ours. I can’t help wondering if that what disappearing the prisons was.”

 

I frowned, “There were people in those prisons for minor shoplifting or unpaid taxes or-”

 

Leave It nodded. “Yeah,” she interrupted, “like I said different cultural understanding.  But we built giant boxes and label them as full of ‘bad’ people. Then aliens turn up who don’t understand the prison industrial complex.  It is any surprise they handly disposed of all the ‘bad’ people for us?”

 

I traded looks with Ale.  Leave It had a point, but then she always had been into social commentary.  That made it hard to tell how much of this was cold logic and how much of it was just her being her.

 

Then Ale shook her head and cleared her throat and asked, “Did yours try to get into your house last night?”

 

There was something in her voice that made that a loaded and slightly terrifying question.

 

Leave It hurried to add, “He probably would have asked first.”

 

“No.  I haven’t ever had any sign that one was watching me.  Aside from the mark on my door that is.”

 

“Hmm.” Leave It mused.  “Wanna go on a road trip to find the other people from the What the Feck Club?”

 

“Beth?” I suggested.

 

Leave It shrugged.  “Hers is dead. I saw them eat it and I even cleaned up the teeth.” She shuddered.

 

I was surprised to learn that (aside from George) three others had been able to talk their way into people’s houses.  How did that work? And Sam of all people! She and I would sometimes go drinking together and complain about how neither of us wanted to put up the arrogance of the local male population.  Or at least we had until they came.n I knew her well enough to know that something had happened last night. But I wasn’t about to call her on it in public.

 

The thing that was currently worrying us all was that Will was missing.  His house was still there. The handprint on his window was still there, but there was no sign of him.  Or of a white box on his doorstep.

 

Meagan had already opened her box.  Two new pairs of pants, new winter boots, two sweaters.  A couple of packs of new plain cotton underwear, a box of chocolates, and a parka.  We all considered this.

 

“Long winter?” I suggested.

 

“Maybe,” Meagan said, “but they didn’t include hats, mitts or socks.”

 

“Or a new bras,” Leave It pointed out. “Or tampons.”

 

There was  a lot of nodding at that one.  We had all run out months ago.  My current go to was something I cobbled together out of wash clothes.  “Do they know about tampons?” I mused.

 

“They know about chocolate,” Meagan pointed out.

 

“Was there anything else?”

 

Meagan looked at her, “Just some seed packets.  I can’t do anything with those until spring.”

 

Leave it looked thoughtful.  “If it is going to be a long winter, maybe we should be growing some of those indoors.”

 

Meagan snorted.  “I don’t have a lot of plant pots around the place.”

 

I kicked the box.  “Tah dah! Planter! Better to fill it with dirt now than wait until the ground if frozen, right?”  There was some thoughtful nodding at that. Fiana announced that since we were all out and about, she was damn well going to feed us lunch.

 

No one was going to object to that.  Even if we all knew that what it really meant was that we would all turn up in her kitchen and make lunch together.  It was soup. Everyone pitched in ingredients. Leave It had bread dough that was ready to bake so we had buns too.

 

Eventually, we all went to our respective homes.  I managed to drag my care package into the house. 

 

Here’s the thing that people don’t understand or don’t want to understand.  I can do everything they can do. It may just take me a little more planning and a little more time.  For example, I unloaded my box in my kitchen and hung up the coat and put the boots in the front entryway.  The clothes had that shipping container smell, so they went into the laundry hamper. I didn’t have chocolates, I had a bag of unpopped popcorn.  It was a big bag. It would totally last through the winter. It went into the pantry. Then I had a long look at the seed packets.

 

Sprinkling seeds in the dirt was fine, but I wondered about starting them in water first.  That part could wait. I really did need to get some dirt in before it froze. Where someone else might just strong arm the darn thing out the door, I need a plan.

So the empty box went outside and I put it on my dolly.  Then I wheeled it over to the garden. Next I went to the shed and got out the cut down shovel I used like an cross between a spade and a trowel.  Fill the pot with dirt. Wheel the dolly and pot back to the door. Swear a bit to get the door and the screen door in to I could wheel the box of dirt into the house. Then hug it with my arm and my prosthesis and carefully lift it up the three steps.  Move the dolly. Lift the box onto the dolly. Wheel it to the living room and carefully unload it in front of the south facing window. At which point, I stepped back to admire my work and promptly jumped as I realized something black and alien was watching me through the front window.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comment please


	9. Dan

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> SFW Care
> 
> Aiming for sweet and funny. Let me know how I did.

I groaned and rolled my shoulders.  Yes, planting an indoor garden was a good idea.  And yes, this had to be harder on Benni (who was down a hand) than it was on me.  But life isn’t a competition and my shoulders hurt.  I am not tall and athletic. I am short and fluffy.  I am not built for this.

 

The thing I _am_ build for is reading directions and the seed packs said to make sure the soil is warm, then to soak the pea seeds overnight before planting them.  Right. I can do that.

 

While they were soaking, I dug through my fridge for leftovers and made soup.  Leftover chicken, carrots and rice became chicken and rice stew.  It put supper a little later than I normally like.  So by the time I had eaten and washed the dishes.  It was full dark out.

 

I looked around the kitchen, trying to see if I could find any signs for aliens.  Nothing.  “I am getting paranoid,” I announced to the empty house,  “time for bed.”

 

Of course saying that doesn’t actually mean you get to go to sleep.  There is still washing up and finding PJs.  Then a few minutes of reading and getting up to pee; then needing some water. Really, it’s a good twenty to thirty minutes of dicking around before I am actually ready for bed.  

 

I was about half way through this routine when an disembodied version of my voice announced, “Time for bed!”

 

I jumped and dropped my water glass, it shattered on the floor spraying my legs with water and glass.  “Fucking hell!” I screamed.  I looked down.  I was standing in the middle of the blast zone, in bare feet with blood running from two cuts in my left leg.  I looked around trying to figure out where I could even put my feet to get away from the glass without making things worse.

 

I couldn’t see a clear path, but when I reached down and pulled the first shard of glass out of my shin, the bleeding immediately got worse.  “Ok… that isn’t… good,” I said and just started to cry.  It had been a long day and I just didn’t need this making it worse.

 

“Shhh!  Shhh!” the voice said, then someone lifted me up off the floor.  Being the creature of beauty and grace that I am, I immediately did my magikarp impression his arms.

 

“Hsh, careful.” he repeated.  “I got you.  Safe.”

 

“But… I… how…” I mumbled, because when you are going to be rendered stupid by surprise you might as well jump in with both feet, right?

 

“Hush.”  It’s voice was getting clearer now. Like it took some practice to come up to speed.  It grabbed a towel on its way past the bedroom and put the folded towel under my leg as it lay me on the bed.  

 

I reached down to poke at the other piece of glass sticking out of my leg.  It caught my hand and held it still.  Once it was sure I was making eye contact, it slowly shook its head, no.  When it was sure I understood, it darted out of the room and came back with my first aid kit.  It wasn’t as well stocked as it had been last year.

 

It - he considered the contents in apparent exasperation for a moment.  Then it sprayed the cuts on my legs with an antiseptic spray for sore throat.  It hissed at the smell.  I whimpered at the sting. It looked at me again and held eye contact as it pulled out the other piece of glass then immediately covered the cuts with his hand.  He was applying pressure to stop the bleeding but …

 

“Don’t you need a gauze pad or something?  I’m just going to get your hand bacteria in the cuts.”

 

He chittered something at me in irritation, then shook his head, no.  He hadn’t turned the lights on when he came into my room and the being forced to hold still was catching up to me I yawned.

 

He yawned, showing rather more shark like teeth than I was used to seeing.

 

“Sleep.” he ordered.

 

“I’m Dan. What’s your name?” I asked.

 

“Hush.  Sleep.  Humans need sleep. Dan needs sleep.”  He watched me for a moment.  “Call for help.”

 

That snapped my eyes open, I screamed.

 

He panicked for a second then grew some more arms to clamp over my mouth.  He was careful to avoid closing off my nose but I suddenly had four hands over my mouth.

 

“I call for help.  I call-ed for help,”  he clarified.  “Don’t - “ he stopped and looked at me.  “Noise hurts.”

 

I frowned.  That couldn’t be right.  I had seen the new footage of them attacking people.  Screaming people.  I tried to pull away, but he was holding me tight.  Having grown up in a house full of siblings, I went for the well known counter attack.

 

I licked his hand.

 

He didn’t move his hands but he was suddenly looked intently at me.  He slowly moved in an licked my forehead.  As he did this three more of them came in and growled and pulled him off of me.  

 

Right off of me.  I screamed as the pressure on the cut on my leg was released and pain and blood flowed back into the area.  They all turned on me and I clamped both my hands over my mouth.

 

One of them came towards me as the other two new ones started to push Hush out of the room.  “No!  Stop!  Don’t hurt him!”

 

Everyone stopped.  The three in my room, the mob out in my hallway.  All of them.  They were all looking at me.  I racked my brain for the phase George had used the other day.

 

“He takes care of me!  He keeps me safe!  Leave him alone!  He was helping me.”

 

Now they all flowed into my room.  It was that big of a room but it was now filled with shadow aliens.  One of them came forward.  He tilted his head and looked at me.  The voice he used was familiar.  He simply said, “Explain.”

 

I frowned a little. “George?” I asked.

 

*Nod* “Explain, please.”

 

I took a deep shaky breath, then folded the towel over my leg and used both hands to put pressure on my cuts.  “I dropped a glass and cut myself when it broke.  He lifted me up so I wouldn’t have to walk on the glass to get out of the kitchen.  Then he removed the glass and held me so the bleeding would stop. He was taking care of me.”

 

They all started talking then.  Chittering, clicking, all sorts of noises that I didn’t understand.  They were very agitated.

 

The suddenly they all stopped.  That was worse somehow, having them all staring at me in silence.

 

“Did you name him?” George asked.

 

“What?” I asked feeling confused.

 

“Did you give him a name?” George tried again.

 

“Hush?” I asked.  They were all watching me expectantly and this didn’t seem quite right.  I tried again.  “His name is Hush.”

 

There was a collective sigh.  They let go of him.  Hush and one other came over to me.  The other one spoke like it was piecing together fragments of TV commercials.  “Let me Help you.  I can! Clean that.”

 

I nodded hesitantly.  It did something to make the bleeding stop after pulling a few more tiny slivers of glass.  Then it and Hush had a slightly animated conversation.

 

“What?” I asked.

 

The other one sang the band-aid jingle, “I am stuck on Band-aid because band-aid helps heal me.”

 

“What?”  I demanded.  “That’s doesn’t make-  um… are you just trying to tell me that I need a band-aid?  OK?  So?  Why not just give me a band-aid?”

 

“Not band-aid.” Hush explained. “Looks …”  he trailed off then used Ale’s voice, “weird and scary.” Then he went back to his voice, “not bad.  Good. but…  Dan has to leave it in place, not poke and make more bleed.”

 

I thought about this. “You are going to give me a super cool alien bandage?” I asked.

 

They all frowned at me.

 

Hush asked hesitantly, “Dan… cold?”

 

I giggled a little at that.  “Cool means… well in this case cool means…” I honesting struggled to find a synonym that wasn’t a slang term. “Interesting,” was the best I could come up with.

 

“Yes.” George said simply.  “Hush gives you interesting alien bandage.”

 

“Ok.”

 

Hush looked at George, then looked at me, then he wiped his hand over the cuts in my leg, leaving behind something that looked like the black handprint on my door.  Except it wasn’t a hand print, it was … a bandage.  Or at least a black smear covering and sealing my cuts.

 

“Thank you.” I said simply.

 

Someone from the back stepped forward and handed me a glass of water.  It was the same glass I had dropped, only now it was glued back together with tiny treads of blue.

 

“Thank you,” I repeated.

 

George nodded.  “We go.  Dan want Hush to stay?”

 

Hush looked a little nervous at that.

 

“He can stay if he wants to.” I agreed.

 

They nodded, either to themselves or to me, I couldn’t tell.  Then they all filed out.

 

Hush came over and tucked me more firmly into bed, then hesitantly lay down next to me on top of the covers. “I take care of you,” he explained.

 

I smiled at him, “I know.  You did good.”

 

He grinned at that, showing those scary teeth.  “Dan sleep now?” he suggested.

 

I nodded.  “I’ll try.”

 

“Good.  I will keep you safe.”

 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> All the comments! Please!


	10. Will

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Will is a transman, who has a toy box and a number of kinks.
> 
> This was a very cool commission to work on. It always helps when the ask is specific.

Where everyone else was waking up to presents on their doorstep, I woke up alone.  I got up and did the normal morning stuff. Brush teeth, eat breakfast. Fantasize about coffee.  You know, the usual stuff. When I headed back to my bedroom after my shower, I found a seven foot tall alien waiting for me.  It was looking through my toy box.

 

Yes.  That kind of toy box.  

 

Some of its eyes looked up when I came in.  The rest remained fixed on a book about rope work it was holding in one hand while another held my favourite strap on and a third held a length of black silk cord.  

 

As its eyes met mine, it growled, “Do you desire this?”  It held out the book, showing a page that was part frogtie and part crotch tie.  

 

I swallowed.  “You shouldn’t be in-”

 

It was suddenly very close to me.  It’s head bowed to be level with my ear. “DO you Desire this?” it repeated.  Then it made a clicking noise and dipped its head lower to smell my crotch.

 

Pressing my lips together I nodded.

 

“I desire this.” it said.  “Let me.”

 

I nodded again, slowly. Yes.

 

A hand ghosted over my cheek.  “Good boy.” It kept watching me.  “Beg me.”

 

I felt my face get warm.  I cleared my throat. “Please.” I said simply.

 

It grinned showing too many teeth.  It set the book carefully back in to the box and grew extra hands to quickly replicate the tie, using the ropes as a harness to tie my Bad Dragon cock tight to my body.  It lay me carefully on the bed and watched my face as it stroked my cock, grinding it into me on each down stroke. My body began to shake as I prepared to cum.

 

Then it stopped and cocked its head to look at me.

 

“Please!” I whined.

 

It grinned.  “Be good. Be quiet.  Let no one find you. I will return.”  Then it turned into a puddle and flowed away.

 

“No!” I gasped and tried to sit up.  It didn’t work

 

It froze in the doorway.  “Want stop? I undo and leave and not come back.  Want more? You wait. Quiet.” It hesitated, watching to see what I was going to do next.

 

I nodded quietly.

 

“Good boy, Will.”

 

Then it left me there. Naked, exposed, no way to cover myself.  And turned on as fuck. I lay there as people came to the door. I could hear them knock.  Then ring the bell. Then call my name. All I had to do was call out and they would come in and untie me.  I lay still and quiet.

 

After what seemed like too long, I heard them leave.  I still just waited.

 

It was about an hour before it, she, came back.  She didn’t actually come over to see me. Instead she went back to the toy box.  She frowned at a set of nipple clamps and considered a butt plug. She turned to look at me.  “Want?” she asked.

 

“You.” I replied.  “I want you.”

 

Now she smiled in what seemed like genuine pleasure.

 

She came over and rand her hands over my body.  Pushing my short brown hair off my face, she ran a finger along my jawline.  Her touch was slightly tingly, both hot and cold at the same time. Her fingers stroked over my cock, then dipped between my legs, swirling over folds before pressing against my asshole.  She made an odd humming noise and pulled on the cords. Everything tightened up, pulling my cock tighter to my body.

 

I moaned.

 

She stopped and looked at me.  Then she checked to cords to make sure they weren’t too tight.  Nodding to herself, she made eye contact again. “Now?”

 

“Please!” I gasped, not even sure what I was asking for but needing it so very badly.

 

Her lower body tripoded, splitting so that she had one leg on each side of my hips and one between my legs.  Then she sank down onto my cock with a number of little chittering noises. She gave a couple of experimental bounces, the upswing pulling on my cock and tightening the cords briefly.  The downswing made everything grind against my body. The weight of her on me was firm, holding me in place.

 

“Name?” she purred.

 

“I’m Will,” I gasped.

 

She made a sound that was a bad imitation of a snicker.  “What is my name?”

 

I tried to concentrate again.  “Mast- Mistress?” I guess.

 

This time I got a snort and a gentle slap.  “Do you not think I deserve a better name than that?”

 

“But I don’t know your name!” I wailed.  I tried to squirm, wanting desperately to cum.

 

“The other’s human’s named them,” she insisted.  “Name me!”

 

“Silars?”

 

“Is that a question, little boy?”

 

“I… I… It’s your name mistr - Silars!”

 

She nodded and adjusted her weight and began to move.  “You will scream it when you cum.”

 

A moment later, I did.  My whole body strained against the cords.  My hips thrust up against her and I squirted as a screamed, “Silars!”

 

As I lay there panting, she smiled down at me.  “Good boy, Will.” Then she began untying the cords.  Licking where ever they had rubbed a red spot into my skin.  The frog tie came off first and she carefully massaged some life back into my arms and legs.  Then she flicked at my dick with her fingers and ordered. “You will not touch this while I am gone.”

 

I nodded happily, prepared to doze for a while.  But she was back at once with some ice water and a cut up apple.  She fed me slivers of fruit while licking my dick clean. Then she carefully untied the rest of me.  I tried to pull the covers over myself as the strap on fell away. She caught my hand and held it gently.  “Let me taste,” she insisted.

 

“That isn’t… me.” I argued weakly.

 

She gave me a slightly puzzeled look and I wondered if I was going to have to explain.  Again. Fuck. I was so goddamn tired of having to explain.

 

“You came for me?” Silars asked.

 

“Yes!  You know I did!”

 

“Be a good boy and let me taste your seed.”

 

I froze at that.  My mind shorting out a little.  “Um… yeah. I can work with that.”

 

My arms and legs were already like water as I came again on her tongue.  She sat up and licked her lips. “Good boy, Will.” she cooed. She stayed vaguely human shaped but oozed up behind me, curling around me as the big spoon.  “Can I stay here? With you? Can I take care of you?”

 

I chuckled softly.  For the first time she sounded uncertain.  “Are you going to stay as my roommate, or my dom or something else?”

 

“I want to stay as your mate, yes.” Silars confirmed.  “I want to take care of you.”

 

The way she said it was nearly enough to make me cum again.  Someone to care. Someone to take care. It seemed like everything I wanted.

 

It seemed like a trap.

 

“Why me?”

 

She nuzzled into my hair, “Smell good.” That came out raw and primal in a deep, husky voice that some part of me instinctively responded to.

 

But I also thought about what she had said.  What she had done. “I smell good?”

 

“Umm hmmm!” it was almost a purr.  She licked my neck.

 

“Like food?” I ask, fight or flight response springing into action.

 

She chuckled again.  “Like soft fluffy puppy dog or kitten cat to us.  Kittens make happy sounds, happy smells when rubbed the right way.  Not always so easy to find the right way. You came with a instruction manual.  That was very helpful.”

 

I chuckled a little, “It’s not exactly an instr-” I stopped.  

 

She had asked if I desire this, while holding out the book.  One of the suggested scenes was leaving someone tied and exposed and going away for awhile.  She had pretty much copied exactly what she had found in the book. The only difference was the man in the picture wasn’t wearing a strap on.

 

Then it hit me.  This was an alien creature.  She might genuinely not see any difference.

 

My brain shorted out at that.  I fell into that meditative subspace for a moment as the realization completely overwhelmed me. Silars didn’t see the difference.  I had moved to this small, backwater town in an attempt to pass. I wasn’t ever sure if I did or if they were all just too polite to say anything.  But Silars genuinely took me as I am and was happy to have instructions on how to please me.

 

I swallowed as the tears welled up.

 

Silars made a small sound of distress, “Will?  Are you hurt? Did I hurt you?”

 

There it was.  Was I will to be kept like a pet for someone who cared about me?  Who wanted to please me? Who saw me as a person and didn’t care about the rest?  Someone who cared if I was hurting?

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments please


	11. Fiana

The thing I like about hosting lunch or dinner or having people over for a cup of hot water (coffee being made of unobtainium these days) and a yak is that it felt like before.  Before the world fell apart, I would drive an hour into the city each day and go to meetings and smooze and network and maybe go for drinks afterwards.

 

Now I was only of the few middle aged people in town.  It was all old people who build the place and young people buying their first house.  And me. Oh, there were a few people my age. They all had kids. 

 

Being single and childless seemed to be too much of a lifestyle gap to bridge.  But now… well, I was old enough that some of the hand print crew were the right age to  have been kids I babysat for or people I interview for their first jobs.

 

I don’t generally feel old.  But looking around that room and seeing at least four of them trying to be subtle about having done the horizontal fandango with an alien last night…  That made me feel old. I remember being that age and uncomfortable in my skin and trying to hide it.

 

I got over it.

 

R - excuse me, Leave It, had a fair point about it maybe being a long winter.  I was impressed that the stuff in the box fit. That they managed to get the size right for me at just shy of 6 foot and also get the size right for Dan standing all of 5’3 was impressive.  Really, if we were going to get snowed in, it would make more sense for us to double up instead of everyone trying to heat their own home.

 

That was just plain logic.

 

However the emotional side of me said, ‘Those alien sons of bitches could pry my house out of my cold dead hands.’

 

Unfortunately, they might.

 

In the meantime, if I wanted to just close the curtains and wander around in my skivvies… Well, I could and I would.  My tattoo was expensive. I wanted to enjoy it. I didn’t care that I was a large woman. It was my damn house and I was past body shame.

 

Which is why after having a bath, I didn’t bother to get dressed right away.  Instead I took some time to rub in some of the homemade lotion we were making these days.  It wasn’t quite as good as my favourite store bought stuff had been, but since the soap we were making was harsher, a person needed the lotion to balance it out.

 

As I rubbed the beeswax/coconut oil combination into my skin I consider my body.  A summer of hard work in the garden had built up my arm and leg muscles but hadn’t really touched the extra weight on my ass.  I used to have a t-shirt that said, “I’m not fat, I’m saving up for the Zombie Apocalypse.”

 

It wasn’t as funny now.

 

If winter was going to go hard, I was going to be better off than most of these girls.  Women. 

 

When they were all standing around wondering why they had picked us, I was pretty sure I knew.  But I wasn’t about to call them on it. And maybe I was wrong. But I doubted it. A career in HR had made me really good at reading people.

 

I looked up from trying to get lotion onto the bottom of my heel and saw one of them watching me.

 

“What do you want?” I demanded.

 

It just looked at me, holding eye contact instead of staring at my naked self.  After a moment it gestured to its left arm, then pointed at me.

 

“You want to see my tattoo?” I asked.

 

It nodded.

 

“You can wait until I’m dressed.” I said firmly.   It nodded again. “You can wait outside my house.” I added firmly.  “If you want to come in, you will damn well knock and wait to be invited.”

 

It stood up.  And up. And more up, until the top of its head was almost brushing the ceiling.  Then it walked upto to me and stood too close.

 

I glared up at it from my seat in the kitchen.  “Listen, jackass, I worked HR for a construction company.  Looming isn’t going to work on me. Get out.”

 

It considered this for a moment, then it left.

 

I let out the breath I had been holding.  It had been kind of a lie. The looming was working, it was just that I knew better than to show fear in those circumstance. 

 

I finished up with the lotion, pulled on my clothes.  Brushed my hair back from my face to show off my earrings.  I was currently just wearing three little sleeper hoops on each side.  I missed having the luxury of wearing anything something fancier.

 

Then I went to the front door and looked outside. It was standing close enough to the door that I wouldn’t be able to get out past it. I jerked the door open and glared up at it.  “You can also add not blocking the exits to the list of requirements for acceptable behaviour. And since I hear you all share information, you can just go ahead and tell the others that too.”

 

Something happened then.  It went every still and its eyelids fluttered like someone dreaming for a moment, then it opened its eyes and blinked at me before nodding.  

 

I will admit, the whole thing knocked some of the swagger out of me.  To cover I said, “All right then.”

 

That’s when its arm shot out and caught mine, pulling hard enough to make me stumble and twisting my arm to get a better view of my tat. 

 

Now, let’s be honest here.  I am not a small woman. I qualify as both big and tall.  I’m a hair under six feet and I always wear heals to put me over that mark.   I have a fair bit of fluff, but don’t kid yourself. I work in construction, that is a very physically job.  Even if I’m mostly in HR, I have enough muscle mass that the labourers can’t push me around.

 

I had never been manhandled like that.

 

Never.

 

I was only a little surprised at how much I liked it.

 

Four of its eyes stayed firmly on my arm but the other two narrowed and turn to peer at my face.  There was something about the way it was watching that suggested it knew.

 

“Name,” it growled.

 

I had heard the stories and knew what it meant, but still, “Aren’t you going to chat me up and play nice first?”

 

There was suddenly a fist pulling my hair to tip my head back so I was looking up into its face.  All of its eyes scanned my face, then it made a sound of disgust and melted and splashed into a puddle and oozed between the floorboards of my front porch.  That was somewhat unsettling, let me tell you. Especially when the teeth had to roll to find a bigger gap to fall through.

 

I stood there in shock for a long moment before going back into my house and locking the door.

 

\----

 

After the box delivery day, no one saw them for a couple of weeks.  We all, as town, kept meeting up to gossip about it. I made a point of keeping a close eye on Summer.   She was a nineteen year old student at one of the local(ish) universities. She was in town visiting a friend for spring break when the … things happened.   She stayed with her friend’s family for a couple of weeks until we organized and fixed up some of the empty houses in town and moved the single people into them.

 

Well, the ones who wanted to, anyway.  The useless Johnson boys were perfectly happy staying home with their mom.  I was keeping an eye on that too. The middle one, Ryan was getting close to the point where the attention he was paying to Benni was starting to look like stalking.

 

The snow came.

 

Someone broke into R’s, that is leave its garage and killed the meat rabbits she was keeping.

 

Coincidently, the next day, the oldest Johnson boy went missing and They came back.

 

We, that is the Feck club, was cleaning up the mess in the garage.  There was blood everywhere and the heater was smashed. That made it really hard to clean, but if we left it… the amount of decomposition she would get in the spring would pretty much mean burning it to the ground.

 

If any of us made it through the winter.

 

They came and politely shoo’ed us out of the garage, the closed the door behind us.

 

I honestly couldn’t tell them apart, but Zoey could.  She knew exactly which one was George. I just knew that one of them was sporting a copy of my tattoo.  It didn’t match the colour, instead it had been rendered in 3D on its arm. My exact tattoo of hawthorn flowers.

 

I wasn’t the only one who noticed.

 

Leave It looked at me and asked if I wanted her to ask George about that.

 

I told her I would think about it.

 

We were still all standing in the snow when Beth commented that they were probably cleaning up the blood by eating it.

 

Leave It shrugged.  “They were for eating.  At least someone is getting the nutrition.”

 

I was busy thinking about Zoey.  Leave It kept those rabbits to feed her.  There wasn’t enough food that people would feel good about sharing with a dog, even if Zoey was very nearly a service dog for Leave It.

 

Eventually the doors opened and they left.  While everyone else was flooding inside to look around, I caught one my its tattooed arm.  The raise area prickled. It froze and turning in a way that wasn’t quite human to look down at me.

 

I dropped its arm.

 

It waited.  Watching me with something that might have been curiosity.

 

I was suddenly nervous, but not prepared to show it.  “Those rabbits were supposed to feed Zoey.” It kept looking at me.  “Now Zoey has no food, Leave it will starve trying to keep them both alive.”

 

It nodded, “Get rid of Zoey, Leave It lives.”

 

“No!  Get rid of Zoey and Leave It has no reason to live.  Zoey needs food. Just … tell George that, ok?”

 

It nodded slowly, “Name?”

 

“What?”

 

“Give me name, I tell George.”

 

I took a step back.

 

It growled softly.  “I tell George, you give me name?” it tried.

 

“What happens if I name you?” I asked.  I was well read enough to be aware of plenty of folklore saying it wasn’t a good idea to name monsters or elves.

 

It tilted its head to look at me.  “If you name me, I will have a name.  People need to name things to value them.  It gives you power. I am offering you that.  Name me.”

 

“I’ll think about it.”

 

It nodded.  “I tell George.”

 

We were cooking together for supper again.  Food made into soup went further than food just eaten as is.  The Feck club had grown closer those few weeks. The rest of the town was… not exactly avoiding us, but we were beginning to have a sense of us vs them.  And they had us outnumbered. The attack on the rabbits was the first crime in town since the town meeting where we decided to stand together in the face of crisis.

 

That didn’t bode well and we all knew it.

 

We had reached the after dinner tea part of the event when Leave It’s doorbell rang.

 

It was them.  They each came in carrying two big bags of kibble.

 

As they stacked them in a neat pile in the corner of her basement, one by one, they came up the stairs and asked to walk their person home.  Except for Summer’s. It faded into a shadow in the corner and watched her.

 

The one with my tattoo was watching me.

 

“Summer?  Why don’t I walk you home?”

 

She threw me a grateful look and said, “Thanks Fiana!” then put on her coat and boots.  The coat and boots out of the gift boxes. The whole town was wearing them. It was cold enough that we needed them.

 

We were still a block away when I realized Tom Johnson was waiting outside her house.

 

I looked around to see who else was out, but it was cold and snowing and there was no one.  I tensed, then leaned down to whisper into her ear, “Do you need to stay with me tonight?” I whispered.

 

That’s when my shadow blinked at me.

 

I made eye contact with Summer, then nodded towards it. Her shadow opened six red eyes and blinked at her.

 

She looked down at it.  “I’m not sure which scares me more, them or him.”

 

Her shadow closed its eyes, mine murmured, “him.”

 

“Everyone has said you want to take care of them,” I whispered.  “If he makes trouble, will you help us?” 

 

One of them, and I honestly couldn’t say which, replied, “Yes.”

 

I could smell Tom six feet away, “Where did you get booze?” I demanded.  “There hasn’t been any left for over a month.”

 

Tom laughed.  “Made our own.” Then he nodded to Summer, “She’s not really one of us, is she?”

 

“Of course she is!” I snapped. “She was more help in the community gardens this summer than you were.”

 

“That’s women’s work, I-” 

 

We didn’t actually get to hear what he was going to say next, because that was where I punched him.  “You lazy piece of shit! Making your mother work to feed all of you while you sit on your ass making moonshine!  Get out of here! ‘One of us’ means people who work to take care of our community! And from where I stand, that isn’t you!”

 

He glared at me, then looked over my shoulder and started to laugh, “You’re dead now, bitch.  They kill people who attack.”

 

“Go home,” a deep voice behind me rumbled.  “You are causing trouble.”

 

Tom turned and fled at that, slippin on the icy streets.

 

I glanced behind me.  Summer’s shadow was still a shadow.  Mine was looming up behind me.

 

We walked in silence the last little bit to her house.  I insisted I come in and we check to make sure everything was ok in side.  The shadows insisted they come in with us. 

 

“Look,” I reasoned, “it’s Summer’s house. You can’t come in unless she invites you.”

 

Summer had been watching all of this with wide eyes.  “If they want to help, they can come in I guess.” 

 

They flowed past us and flew through the house.  Only one of them came back. It had my tattoo on its arm.  It caught my arm and hustled me out of the entryway and started to lead me home.  When we got to my door, it didn’t let go of my arm.

 

“Invite me in.”

 

“Man, you are prickly!  No asking me if I am ok, or if -”

 

It suddenly interrupted me, “You are naming me Prickly?”

 

It managed to sound both pleased and dismayed at the same time.

 

I chuckled to myself.  “It would serve you right it I did.  I’m not entirely pleased you copied my tattoo.”  His… skin? Arm flattened out as soon as I said that.  “But I am glad you took care of Zoey.”

 

In a very resigned tone of voice, he said, “I will be called Prickly if it makes you happy.”

 

“I am not naming you Prickly!”

 

He tensed.  “Name me.”

 

I gave him a long look.  “I will name you if you can tell me why it is so important to you.”

 

He stared back at me.  “It is cold outside. Invite me in and I will explain.”

 

“If I invite you in, how do I know you won’t hurt me?”

 

He growled in apparent frustration.  “If I wanted to hurt you, I wouldn’t care if I was invited.”

 

He had a point.

 

“Fine, come inside and explain.”

 

I was surprised that he helped me off with my coat and hung it in the hall closet as I sat to take off my boots.  “Feel free to start explaining any time now.”

 

He walked past me to the kitchen and put the kettle on.  I hadn’t been a tea drinker before. But the coffee was long gone and the mint crop had been abundant this year.  Some people drank the one made out of the heads of pineapple weed, but I just couldn’t get used to that. It was something that grew in the cracks of the pavement and was walked on.

 

“Humans form packs.  It happens so often that you make jokes about it.  You don’t always keep the same packs, but you form them so often that you claim items as part of your pack and care for them like your child.  There are places in the world where that tendency is more pronounced than here, but none in the surrounding area.”

 

He stopped talking for a moment and handed me a tea. “We have identified key points of pack bonding.  They include but are not limited to exchanging names or naming of pets and items. Sharing food. Social bonding over common interests. And sexual bonding/compatibility tests.

 

“We have been advised to try to integrate into this community to gain understanding of how this pack is functioning.”

 

“And that’s why you want a name?”

 

“Yes.  I will also provide care including sharing food, bonding over social activities and being sexually compatible for you.”

 

I sipped my tea and thought about that one.  “How exactly are you planning on being sexually compatible when you are a different species?”

 

“Reproductively compatible is not the same as sexually compatible.”

 

“How does your species reproduce?”

 

“Via hyphae.”

 

“I don’t know what that means.”

 

He looked at me.  “I have learned the term but not any synonyms.  We believed it was comparable to the human concept of seed.  But experiments with such caused the humans involved distress.  We share vocabulary and understanding between ourselves and are getting better at taking care of humans and keeping them happy and safe.”

 

He watched me for a long moment.  “Give me a name. I want to take care of you.  Even if you call me Prickly.”

 

“Is the name that important?”

 

He nodded slowly, “George accidentally named Leave It.  We did not understand at that time. But names are important enough that Leave It has become who she is.”

 

I thought about that as I sipped my tea.

 

“I’ll call you Quill.  I don’t want you using my tattoo, but if you wear a different one, it did make it much easier to tell you apart.  Individuality will help with pack bonding. If we can’t tell you apart, it is harder to bond to any of you.”

 

Quill nodded.  “Thank you.”

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Comments please. Summer is the last member of the Feck club.


	12. Summer

I saw Fiana leave with … her alien, but two had come into my house and there was no sign of the other one.  

 

“Hello?  Where are you?”  I wandered through the living room (with 1970’s green shag carpet) to the kitchen. “Hello?  Look, you can’t be here unless I invite you. Either show yourself or I revoke my invitation.” 

 

There was a creak of the floorboards behind me.

 

It was an old house.  It had been abandoned for a while before I moved in.  It might be nothing. 

 

I didn’t really believe that.  I turned around slowly. He was in the far corner of the room, flattened against the wall.  The room wasn’t that big, so he was a sort of an amorphous blob reaching from floor to ceiling.  The eyes were level with mine. I swallowed nervously.

 

“You can be any shape, right?” There was no response. “Can you be human shaped for me?”

 

The blob reformed, easily a foot taller than my 5’4, with all the muscle definition of Jason Momoa.

 

“Oh!” I didn’t so much say it as breath it.  I took an involuntary step back and bumped the 1950’s chrome table, knocking over the pepper shaker.  He started to reach out to me then dropped his hand. I didn’t turn my back on him but siddled around to get a glass of water.

 

I took a sip then asked, “Is this the first time you’ve been in my house?”

 

He blinked but didn’t answer.

 

“What’s your name?”

 

The reply was a chittering croak.

 

“That’s…. Not something I can pronounce.  You sound like a crow. Or maybe a raven. You are too big to be a crow.” 

 

He nodded.

 

“If I tell you to leave, will you?”

 

He blinked, then nodded slowly.

 

“Will you stay out?”

 

No reply.

 

I shivered.  “That is so creepy!”

 

“Pretty,” he rumbled in a voice like thunder.

 

“Excuse me?”

 

“Summer, you are so pretty.  Most beautiful woman in the whole town.”

 

“How do you figure that?”

 

He took two steps forward and had me pinned to the counter.  Then he carefully drew a finger along my face, almost but not quite touching my skin, then down my neck to my arm.  “Pretty. Like us.”

 

My eyes narrowed at that. “So, when you say ‘prettiest girl in town,’ what you mean is darkest skin in town.  And I’m not. There are a couple of families darker than me.”

 

He shook his head and faked a frown.  “Not pretty little girl, beautiful woman.”  His hand came back up and ghosted over my curls, “Soft.  Fluffy. Beautiful.” Then he abruptly dropped his hand and backed away from me.  He hung his head and whispered, “Shy.”

 

“I am -” then what he said actually caught up to me. “Oh.  You are shy.” I thought some more. “That doesn’t make you watching me less creepy though.”

 

He shook his head, looking for a moment like a sullen toddler.  A 6’6 sullen toddler. “Not creep. Guard! We left and you got in trouble.  All of you.”

 

“We are doing ok.”

 

He snorted in disbelief.  “We help. Keep you safe. Keep you fed. Keep you warm.”

 

“And you are going to do all of that by watching me?”

 

“Watch. Learn.  Share. Grow.”

 

“What does that even mean?”

 

“We are watching this town to learn what humans can be.”

 

“And what can we be?”

 

“Food thieves, but sharing food.  Welcoming and afraid. Complicated.”

 

“Yeah.  You should go.  I need to get ready for bed.”

 

“Let me stay.  Please.”

 

“Ha!  I heard about Sam and Ale.  And Will. I know ‘what let me stay’ means.”

 

“Inkwell and Silars not hurt their persons.  Omen not hurt, but scare as accident. Shadow loves Meagan, doesn’t hurt, doesn’t even touch.”

 

“Yeah, well Meagan is ace.  Shadow touching her that way would be hurting.”

 

“Ace?”

 

“Yeah. She has all the reproductive bits but isn’t really interested in using them.” I yawned, until my jaw cracked, then looked at the clock. “You should go.”

 

He wasn’t looking at me any more.  All of his six eyes were closed, his shape had softened a but, blurring around the edges. I couldn’t decide if he was less scary like that or more.  He certainly was less human looking. After a few moments, he opened his eyes, then blinked a couple of times and looked around the room in apparent confusion.  Then he saw me and did a bit of a jump scare. He firmed up his shape and squared his shoulders and focused on me.

 

“Is my name Crow?”

 

“What?  I don’t know your name.”

 

“Name me, please?”

 

I scratched my shoulder.  His eyes followed the movement.  “I dunno. Raven?”

 

“Thank you, Summer.  I will stay close. Keep…. I will keep … Tom away.”

 

Now I tensed.  Did I really want a shadow monster on my porch drawing even more attention?  And, “What just happened? You went all still then… did you forget where you were?”

 

Raven watched me for a moment.  “I had not heard the word ‘ace’ used before.  I asked if anyone else had heard that. We had ace as a card reference but not in that context.”

 

I thought about that.  “So, what… you googled it or something? Your speech got better too.” 

 

The blur was shorter this time. “Yes, not exactly google but something like that.”

 

“You have me cornered in here.  Could you at least stop blocking the exit?”

 

Raven didn’t turn and walk away.  He backed out of the room while looking at me.  That was unnerving all on its own, watching him navigate the cluttered little room perfectly in reverse while keeping his eyes locked on me like I was prey.  It was not comforting.

 

“You are lonely.  I have seen you being lonely.”

 

He was through the door between the kitchen and the living room, but not actually out of my way.  “Oh yeah,” I scoffed, “and what does me being lonely look like?”

 

I should never have asked that.  I didn’t want to know. I didn’t want to have to watch him pantomiming something that took me too long to understand was me masturbating.  “Stop! Get out! Just go!”

 

“You are upset?”

 

“You watched me…” I floundered, not wanting to actually say it.  “Do that? Yes! I am upset! That is private.”

 

He looked puzzled.  “Why?”

 

“What?” I demanded, pacing in the kitchen, my eyes on the floor, my hair hanging around my face so I didn’t have to look at him.

 

“Why is that private?  Everyone does it.”

 

“Yeah, well everyone poops too, that doesn’t mean I want you watching that either.”  He was suddenly very still and very quiet. “You watched me poop, too, didn’t you?”

 

“No.”  It was the least convincing no I had ever heard.  

 

Sam talked about Inkwell playing with her breasts like he had never seen anything like that before.  Like a little kid, she said. Really little, like two.

 

“Why are you watching me?” I demanded, turning on him.

 

He looked hard at me.  All six red eyes pointed in my direction.  “Helen says we must answer. I want to integrate into your family unit.”

 

“Is that true or is that just what Helen told you to say?  And who is Helen?”

 

Raven seemed to consider this.  “It is true. Helen in Binx’s human.”

 

“Who is Binx?”

 

“Binx discovered humans have names.”

 

“What?  Of course we have names!”

 

Raven shook his head.  “Names for the individual.  That is… new to us. Humans need names and socialization and touch.  Otherwise they self harm.” I didn’t really understand all of that, but he said it with authority.  “I want to give you food and drink and shelter and names and socialization and touch. And whatever else you need not to self harm.”  He looked at me, then added, “Or harm others. Man took rabbits. He didn’t need all the rabbits. He wanted to harm Leave It.” He thought some more.  “Helen says Leave It isn’t a real name, but George doesn’t care because he was second to get named.”

 

“You don’t have names?  That doesn’t sound real.”

 

Raven made the sound of Leave It’s dismissive snort, “It didn’t seem real when we understood that each human has its own name.  You are not like us.”

 

“In so, SO many ways,” I agreed.

 

Raven nodded, “It took many many days for Helen to explain the idea of shame to Binx.  We don’t experience that. Everything is shared so that we can all understand.” Then he ducked his head, “I forgot humans don’t like being always watched.  I apologize. Please let me stay.”

 

“Ugh.  Fine. But you are sleeping on the couch.”

 

He shook his head, “We do not sleep, but we were already aware of that in other species.”  He kept watching me. I still hadn’t left the kitchen. He sighed, “Silars was lucky, Will came with instructions.”

 

I shook my head, “What?  You aren’t making any sense.”

 

“Will had a book for how to pack bond.  Silars just followed the directions and it worked.  When she reported on her success, Helen called us all back in and yelled at us and made us all promise no one else would try that unless our person asked.  It was very confusing.”

 

I certainly felt confused. “Go wait on the couch!” I insisted.  “I need to get ready for bed.”

 

Raven backed up further and sat on the arm of the couch.  It has also come with the house. I had to vacuum an inch of dust off of it and borrow a carpet cleaner to make it usable when I moved in.  I put on my pj’s, washed my face and was brushing my teeth when I thought of something, “Hey! You need to brush your teeth? I don’t want you using my toothbrush!”

 

He shook his head.  “No mouth bacteria. No rotting teeth.”

 

“Lucky,” I mumbled around the toothbrush.

 

“Can I watch you sleep?”

 

“No!”  I thought about that some more.  “Why would you want to? You have some sort of kink or something?”

 

He closed his eyes and did that thing again.  Alien google. When he opened them, he answered, “We don’t have kink because we don’t reproduce sexually.  We offer sex as a way to comfort our humans, not because of need.”

 

I frowned a little, “Why?”

 

“It makes you happy.  If you want it.”

 

“I am too tired for this!”  I rubbed my eyes and then looked back up at him.  “So you don’t sleep but you want to watch me sleep and you don’t fuck but you watch me fuck and want to help?  That makes no sense!”

 

Raven shrugged, “Makes sense to us.  Our sense is different than your sense.”

 

“But what do you get out of it?”

 

Raven licked his lips with a tentacle like tongue.  “Humans taste good when their bodies writhe and their hips buck and their cunt clenches or their dick spills and their feet twitch.  They make the best noises, the best juices. Then they get all happy and quiet and touch us and sleep on us. WANT that.” His voice was deep enough at the best of times, but that last word came out as a growl.  Then he swallowed, “I need to make you feel happy and safe to get it. I understand that I might not ever make you that happy, but I want to at least try.” He thought some more. “I will wait outside of your house.  You have not really invited me in.”

 

“And that’s really all you want?  A happy, quiet, juicy human? Shadow is going to be right out of luck.”

 

Raven shook his head defiantly, “Meagan sleeps touching Shadow.  She likes his hugs. I can give good hugs too. Would you like try one, Summer?”

 

“Uh… no.  I’m good thanks.”

 

He nodded, politely, then he left.  I did a whole body shiver and locked the doors.  I turn off the lights and lay in bed, staring at the ceiling.  Then I dug out my phone. There wasn’t much of the internet left, but we still had service.  

 

I texted Meagan, for an hour. Then I snapchatted Sam and woke her up.  I could see Inkwell in the background telling her to sleep. That was a much shorter discussion.  Then I messaged Ale. 

 

“He made me breakfast in the morning, Summer!  I was just too busy freaking out to notice.” She voice was a little shaky, she was talking faster than she usually did.

 

“Do you want him back?” I asked.

 

There was a long moment of pause.

 

“I called them back when I found out about the rabbits.”

 

“Wait! You did what?  How does that work?”

 

“Remember I told you he left that little blob in a dish on my window ledge?  I remembered someone saying that they could talk to each other. So I went home and found it.  I took it out of the dish and held it in my hand and called for help. Omen was at my house in minutes.”

 

“I didn’t see him go to your house afterwards.”

 

“He didn’t.  Everyone got a walk home, but he stopped at the sidewalk outside of my house and …  I don’t even know. He went away.”

 

“You didn’t invited him in again?” I asked.  Then I realized what I said, “I’m sorry. I don’t even know if you want him in your house.”

 

Ale sent me an embarrassed looking frown.  “I don’t know what to do. I mean, 10 out of 10, would bang again.  But I’m not sure how to react to all of this. What’s their long game?”

 

“Exactly!” I agreed. “If he was a guy to lurked around my house, watching me poop-”

 

“What?”

 

“Oh yeah.  Turns out Raven is a regular stalker.” I could se Ale shuddering at that. “If he were a guy, I would be calling the cops.  But when he said it he was so… innocent. Like he couldn’t see the problem and didn’t understand. But... also like he really wanted to. Know what I mean?”

 

“Yeah.  I just really needed a wank and Omen offered to take care of it for me like it was no big deal.  Just as calmly as I might offer to give someone a hair tie or a tampon if I saw her struggling in the bathroom.”

 

“Raven said they like how we taste.”

 

“Hmm.  Omen didn’t say anything about that.  It was just ‘this is what you need, I will help’.”

 

“Raven also said Shadow was sleeping with Meagan.  But not fucking her. When I texted her to talk about this, she confirmed.  Said he was warm and snuggly and never tried anything.” I considered this some more, “Think they read our browser history a head of time to know what would work?”

 

“Omen certainly knew all the right things to say to me.”

 

I snorted, “Ray could have done a lot better, let me tell you.”

 

“Oh, I don’t know.  He got you talking about it, didn’t he?”

 

\----

 

After I put my phone down, I looked at the clock. It was after two.  I rolled around until three when I finally got up, stormed to the front door, wrenched it open and hissed into the darkness, “Oh for fucks sake, get in here before I change my mind.”

 

Raven stepped forward, darkness looming out of darkness.  Red eyes locked on mine. I backed into my house as it came toward me.  “Who are you?” I asked.

 

“Raven.  Do you invite me in?”

 

“Um…  I can’t tell you apart, Ray.”

 

The darkness froze.  “I am not Ray. I am Raven.”

 

“Right!  Sorry! No nicknames.”

 

Raven was silent as he came in and closed the door behind him.  “What is nicknames?”

 

“Uh…  other names for people.  Like Ale is Alejandra.”

 

Raven stopped and stared down at me.  He just stood there for a very long time.  More than enough time to make me feel uncomfortable.  I took a step back, he caught my hand. “Summer… you gave me two names?”

 

“Um… not exactly, it’s OK.  I won’t call you that any more if it bothers you.”

 

“I am first to have two names.”  He was quiet again, but only for a moment, “Thank you.” He said it softly, almost reverently.  Then he shook himself and looked down at me, “Human’s need sleep, why do you not sleep?”

 

I looked hard at him, “I am going to regret this.  You can stay.”

 

“Why would you regret?”

 

“Because you are too different.  You aren’t going to understand something that I take for granted and I’m going to get hurt by that lack of understanding.”

 

He seemed to consider this, “I understand you need to sleep.”

 

“Yeah, I do.”

 

Moving very carefully, still holding my hand, he led me back to my room and tucked me in.  “Sleep now, explain later, all right?”

 

“Okay.”

 

He didn’t actually leave though.  He found my hand and held it, laying on the bed next to me.  Which was still a little creepy, but by then I was so tired that just holding still and letting some of the tension drain away was all it took for me to fall asleep.

 

I awoke to the sun streaming in through the window.  I rolled over, Raven was gone. I sat up and rubbed my eyes and looked around the my room.  “Are you there?”

 

I jumped when a voice from the kitchen said, “I am here.”

 

I flopped down on the bed and tried to figure out why I was relieved.  I guess it was because he wasn’t hiding anymore.

 

“Food next?” 

 

I looked up, he was standing in the doorway.  “Yeah, OK, what do you want to eat?”

 

He went very still.  Then he ducked the question.  “I will make you breakfast.”

 

“Do you know how to cook for a human?”

 

Now he looked a little nervous, “Not cook.  I brought berries. You want me to cook?”

 

“It’s December, where did you get berries?”

 

“I brought them.”

 

I climbed out of bed, “I’m going to go wash up and brush my teeth and I’ll be there in a while.”

 

When I made it out to the kitchen, there was breakfast waiting for me.  A bowl of the homemade yogurt, a pot of melted honey, and a plate of blueberries, strawberries and apple slices carefully arranged so they weren’t touching.  I frowned at that.

 

“Is it wrong?” Ray asked.

 

“No… it’s… great.  Just not what I was expecting.  I haven’t had berries in a couple of months.  Thank you.”

 

Raven knelt on the floor next to where I was sitting and put his head in my lap.  I tensed. He made a sad noise, but slid over so that he was still sitting on the floor but not touching me.

 

“Are you going to have some of this?”  He shook his head. I dipped a strawberry into the yogurt and bit the end off.  Then I poured the honey into the yogurt and gave it a stir. I tried again. The second half of the strawberry and yogurt was much better.  I looked over to where Ray was still watching me. “You are being creepy again.”

 

“I am still guarding.”

 

“From what?”

 

He shrugged.  I grinned, it was an unexpectedly human gesture. 

 

“Guarding from hunger?” he suggested.

 

“By sitting on the floor?”

 

“You smell good.  Chairs are new.”

 

I snorted around the apple slice I was eating.  “I smell like unwashed sleep shirt and -” I stopped abruptly as I realized what else I probably smelled like.  I dipped my head and concentrated on my breakfast, but I couldn’t actually bring myself to take another bite. I had to ask, “All those people you took, your people took, did you eat them?”

 

He… laughed, but it wasn’t a human laugh.  “No! Can’t eat humans! Can’t eat human food!  I am not like you.”

 

“So what do you eat?  Don’t try to tell me you are solar powered, not with those teeth.”

 

“Teeth are defensive.  We eat our food, I can taste your food, but not live on it.”

 

I thought about this, “Do you want to taste my food?”

 

“You want to share food?”

 

I thought about this.  “Well, you brought the food, so I guess you are actually sharing with me.  Do you want to try any of this?”

 

“You let me taste?”

 

“Sure?”

 

He crept forward and lay his head in my lap again.  “Let me taste?” he asked again.

 

I frowned.  “Hey, there is a big difference between sharing an apple and having sex.”

 

He rocked back again and shook his head.  “No sex, just taste. Please?” I frowned down at him.  “Just touch?” His hand reached for my bare calf but stopped before he actually made contact.

 

“What happens if I say no?”

 

He immediately backed away and moved to the furthest point from where I was sitting, without leaving the room or blocking the exit.  “I will not hurt you.”

 

I went back to eating breakfast, “What do you get out of it?”

 

“A name,” he said proudly.  “Two names! I am named Raven.  I am named Ray. Summer -” he stopped for a moment. “I want to give you good things in return.”

 

“You gave me breakfast.”

 

He shook his head, “You would have better breakfast if my people hadn’t come.”

 

I didn’t really know what to say to that.  I finished eating in silence then took my dishes to the sink.  Ray followed, watching me, but not getting too close. I looked at him.  He was flawless. Like his body had been perfectly tailored for me. I was just itching to run my hands over him. “Ok.  Let’s give this a try.”

 

He walked slowly up to me, watching my face.  When he was barely an inch away, he ducked his head and sniffed my head, then nuzzled his cheek against the top of my head.  He caught my chin in his hand and tilted my head up to look into my eyes, then dipped down to kiss my lips. It was gentle and sweet and when he stopped he looked at me.  “Okay?”

 

I giggled for a moment before I got it together and nodded.  He kissed my neck and licked his way down to my collar bone before cupping my ass with both hands and setting me on the counter.  At this height it was easier for me to carefully trace the sculpted lines of his chest. His form was smooth and slightly pliable, but still firm, the nipples were just the same as the rest of his chest.

 

“Is that wrong?”

 

I looked up at him.I realized I was frowning.  I forced myself to stop. “You didn’t quite get these right.”

 

“Tell me.”

 

I thought about how to describe the difference, then just brought his hand to cup my breast.  “They are softer, but they respond to touch and temperature.”

 

He ran his thumb over my nipple feeling it harden through my night shirt.

 

“Show me?  Please?”

 

I nodded, his hands slid down my thighs and pushed my shirt up and then pulling it over my head.  Between being handled like that and the sudden colder air, my nipples crinkled right up.

 

“Hmm.” it was a thoughtful noise, then he ducked his head and ran a pink, wet, tentacle like tongue over my breast, swirling around my before bowing his head and giving my breast and experimental suck.

 

I gasped, suddenly tightening my grip on his arms.

 

He stopped and looked at me. “Hurt?”

 

I shook my head, “That was nice.”

 

“Hmm.”  He leaned in and kissed my mouth again, this time dipping his tongue briefly into my mouth.

 

I gave it a careful suck.  His hands tightened a little on my breasts before coming up to cup my head and kissing me hard, sucking on my lips, licking and tasting me.  His hands trailed down my back, cupping and squeezing my ass. He kissed a trail down my neck, over my chest, then dropped to his knees between my legs.   
  


“Please?” it was just about the most reverential whisper I had ever heard.  I nodded and let him put his hands on my knees and gently pull them open. He hooked one of my legs over each of his shoulders, then slid me forward to the edge of the counter.  He looked up so that he could watch my face as he slowly extended that tongue and delicately lapped at my folds.

 

My hips twitched.  He stopped. I leaned back a little and angled my body to allow him better access.  

 

“Thank you,” he whispered before going back to lap at my folds.  I was already soaking wet and having him eagerly lap up my juices was just making it worse.  He found my clit and began stroking and flicking it with the tip of his tongue. I gasped and raised one foot to press on his shoulder, giving me leverage to splay my legs open even further.  I whimpered and curled my body toward him, catching his head in my hands.

 

He stopped.

 

“Please!” I gasped trying to pull him closer.  

 

He laughed darkly, then latched on to my clit and sucked for a moment before going back to lapping at me.  My legs started to shake, I grabbed my thighs to hold them open and tensed as I felt the wave begin to build.

 

My body began to flutter and clench.

 

He dipped his tongue inside of me a swirled it around and up, finding the spot that made everything tense as I came.  He pulled his tongue out and went back to my clit. 

 

It was too much, I squirmed and pulled away, unable to speak but wrenching his head away.

 

He backed up and stood up and looked down at me.  “Hurt?”

 

I shook my head, “No.  Not hurt, just done.”

 

“Hmm.”  He lifted me back onto my feet, the scooped me up and held me when my legs wouldn’t.  “Good?”

 

“Yeah.”

 

“Sleep more?”

 

“Maybe a little.”

 

He carried be back to bed.  When he lay me down, I pulled on him towards the mattress, the managed to get him positioned to be the big spoon.  I pulled his arm over me and dozed for a while.

 

I woke with him stroking my side.  I blinked and rolled toward him.

 

“Still good?”

 

“Um-hmm,” I agreed.

 

“More?” he didn’t sound like he was expecting anything, merely curious.

 

I ran my hands down his chest and cupped the flat space between his legs before sliding my hand away.  I looked up to find him watching me.

 

“I can be that for you, if you want.”

 

I thought about that. “Maybe.”  I rolled back on to my my side. 

 

His body spooned up behind me. I could feel him reshaping behind me, then a cock bobbing against my ass.  “Stop?” he asked.

 

“Not yet,” I replied.

 

He slid it between my thighs and gave a couple of experimental thrusts, rubbing his dick over my folds.

 

“That’s nice,” I mumbled.  He kissed my shoulder. I pushed back a little, rubbing my ass against him.

 

“More?” he asked.  I nodded. “Show me?” he suggested.  I thought about that for a moment, then put myself into my not completely perfect frog’s pose, exposing myself to him.  He pushed the covers off the rest of the way, then covered my body with his. His hands were next to mine, his knees between mine.  Then with one, slow careful movement, he sheathed himself inside me.

 

I moaned softly at the immediate feeling of fullness. 

 

He pushed my hair to the side and licked and sucked at my neck as his body began to rock into mine.  It was a slow and gentle rock in deep followed by a careful, rolling easing out. 

 

“More!” I gasped trying to grind back against him.  He moved faster, then progressively harder until he was snapping his hips against mine. I whimpered and clenched as I came.  He just fucked me though it. And as I started to sag in the aftermath, his fingers found my clit and rubbed hard in time with his thrusts.  Every nerve in my body lit up, my cunt clenched hard enough to slow him down, I made some strange animal sound as my body fluttered and arched, then instinctively pulled away.  He caught me and held me tight, then rolled us both onto our sides as I lay there panting, soaked in sweat, his body still tucked into mine.

 

He licked my neck again.  “Still good?”

 

“Yeah,” I gasped, “but now I sleep.”

 

He laughed, “You should have let me try that last night.”

  
  
  


 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summer was commissioned as a person of colour. I am not. I am also not American and can't pretend to understand what it is like to be either of those, let alone both. Summer is written as a person, not as (I hope) a caricature. The description and the kink was provided by the person who sponsored her.

**Author's Note:**

> My offering for Camp NaNo. I didn't finish it on time.


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